Möglichkeiten (03)
by lone astronomer
Summary: 6th year of 'A Hundred Thousand Mirrored Futures'. With Chapters. Oh joy.
1. And Then There Were None

dunnoyet

And Then There Were None

lone astronomer

Summary: LALALA!! Diagon Alley and the Hogwarts Express, 6th year for James, Lily, Sirius, Remus, etc, etc, ad infinitum. We see the return of Sirius' conscience and of Remus' depression… but it doesn't last long in Sirius' case. The shit hits the fan, there are two McGonagalls, we meet the King of Swing, Remus confesses.

Disclaimer: Sadly, it's J. K. Rowling's. Well, it had to be someone's. No infringement is intended. No profit is being made. No point is being made either. Let's get on with it, shall we?

I'd like to add that I don't know a _thing_ about swing dancing… but it looks like fun, so everything I've invented is just that- _invented_.

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And Then There Were None

Part One- The Shit Hits the Fan

* * *

Lily Evans was more than just frustrated. She was supposed to be meeting her friends in Diagon Alley in half an hour- and she _could not find her shoes_.

Of course, that wasn't all that was bothering her. School was supposed to start the following day, which meant (to her) that she'd lived through almost the entire summer- far too long- without James and was practically dying to see him again. Well, more than just see him. She grinned, yanking her shoes out from under her sister's bed. "Success," she murmured. "Wonder what Mrs. Dursley was doing with _my_ shoes?"

In the midsummer boredom that came with vacations, Lily had taken to reading Petunia's pathetic diary- apparently she'd had some, er, _intimate_ experiences with this Vernon fellow, and was secretly (or not secretly, once Lily let it slip to their Mum and Dad) engaged to him.

"Time to go, then," she decided, running down to the living room, lighting a fire in the fireplace (which had just recently been connected to the Floo network, courtesy of one of James' friends at the Ministry), and tossing Floo powder into the flames. "Diagon Alley!" she shouted, and squeezed her eyes tightly shut.

"Speak of the devil."

Jame's eyes narrowed as Severus Snape appeared around a corner, followed closely by two useless lumps of flesh (otherwise known as BFU - Big, Fat and Ugly- One and Two). 

"Forget about him," Remus ordered testily, forcibly turning James around. "He's below you. Besides," he added with a grin, "Sparky just walked out of Flourish and Blotts."

"Sparky?" James asked, immediately searching the immediate vicinity for Flourish and Blotts. "Where? Remus, I don't see her any-"

"Looking for someone?" a familiar voice asked from behind them. Remus almost jumped out of his skin, but James turned around and enveloped Lily in a hug. 

"Just you," he said, feigning indifference. 

Lily shot him an amused look. "Funny."

"I thought so."

"So, have you seen Sirius, Mioré, or-" Lily's gaze turned on Remus- "Allya?"

"No," Remus answered shortly, surveying the surrounding area. "They're not due here till eleven, and it's only ten to. Shall we get some ice cream?"

"At eleven o'clock in the morning?"

Remus shrugged. "Whatever."

Ally and Mioré showed up shortly, and found their friends munching contentedly on ice cream outside Florian Fortescue's.

"So where's Sirius?" Mioré asked after a few moments. "I mean, I know he's not the most punctual guy in the world, but-"

Mioré's words were cut off by a steadily growing roar and a loud crash- suddenly, where there had been wizards and witches a few moments before, there was a large motorcycle topped by two men- an older one in a black trench-coat with long hair, and a younger one, who looked just as seasoned on the bike.

"Thanks, Kor," Sirius called back as he hopped off the Harley, doffing his helmet and grabbing the chair between Mioré and James. "'Lo, everybody."

Mioré just looked at him, then back to where the Harley was taking off again. "Who was _that_?" 

Sirius caught the look, interpreted it correctly, and answered simply. "Korax. Older brother. _Why_?" he drew out the word, knowing that he'd catch her this time.

"That boy has a _fine_ ass," she breathed, almost inaudibly. She added, "Must run in the family," before she caught herself and turned an unflattering shade of maroon. "Was that out loud?"

Lily nodded.

Mioré pounded her head on the table. "Stupid, stupid, stupid…"

The overnight at The Leaky Cauldron went smoothly- the only pranks the boys played on poor old Tom was hiding his false teeth inside a jar of pickled beets. Of course, when he finally found them, they were stained a brilliant shade of pink, and for all the magic in the world he couldn't get them clean.

But Tom was a good sport- during the night, he crept into the boys' rooms and dyed their hair different colors- orange for Remus, blue for Sirius, and green for Prongs. In the morning, the girls could barely contain their laughter.

"James!" Lily howled, rolling on the floor. "James, did you realize…your hair is green…"

"Matches your eyes," James said disinterestedly, picking imaginary fluff from his robes.

Sirius cackled.

"Y'know," Ally said, a few moments into breakfast, "your hair looks really sexy orange… Pumpkin-head."

They tried to hold back the laughter… but in this case (OK SW FREAKS!!) there was no try.

Platform nine and three-quarters was as busy as it usually was on September the first, with children and adults and in-between-ers bustling about doing their business (not that, you foul-minded scum!!). When the Marauders plus two finally found an empty car, the train was already moving. They stowed their trunks and settled in for the ride.

Lindsay, who had joined them a few moments into the journey, let loose a yawn that nearly swallowed the rest of them. "I'm bored… what were you guys doing last year at this time?"

Sirius grinned. "Watching Snape do a little jig through a transparent door and laughing our asses off. What were you doing?"

Lindsay sighed dreamily. "Fawning over Brady Graves…"

Sirius and Mioré exchanged looks, sharing their opinion of Brady- he was a stuck-up, good-for-slightly-more-than-nothing, rich smart-aleck. This was crushed into an agonizing little ball with the fact that he was tall, dark, handsome, and knew it. (In other words, he was Sirius, only a goody-goody and in Ravenclaw.)

"I don't like him much," Lily said thoughtfully after a moment's silence. Sirius winked at James, but luckily Lily missed it entirely.

"I'm bored," Allya announced. 

"Me too," Mioré chimed in.

"Ditto."

"Yep."

"Um… Shall I teach you how to play Poker?" Lily asked finally, tired of the mounting silence.

"Poker?"

"Isn't that some weird Muggle old-lady game?"

Lily scowled at Remus. "That's Euker, Pumpkin-head." The emphasis on the words was almost too much- everyone in the car grinned (it was especially funny coming from a redhead), but luckily this time they were able to contain themselves. "But I suggest we make it more interesting…"

Lily outlined her plan. 

Sirius smirked at James, who was doing his best to hide his awe. 

"Strip poker!" Lindsay yelled, and people poured in from the other cars to watch.

The Great Hall at dinner time was probably one of Sirius' favorite places to be, and not without good reason. The food was excellent, entertainment level was high- especially since it was such a great place to work a prank from- and being surrounded by friends was definitely not a down side.

James and Sirius were rather more excited than normal, as they'd planned their first prank and carried out the preliminaries already. All that remained was to watch from afar…

The school song being sung, the sorting finally ending, and the food having appeared, their attention was turned raptly to the Head Table…

Professor Snape took one bite of the pork chop he was supposed to be consuming and turned a perfect shade of white, then red, spitting out his food all the while. Too late- within seconds he was turned into a look-alike of…

Professor McGonagall. 

In front of him, a business card popped up-

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Boring school stuff got you down? Have no fear, Padfoot and Prongs are here. . .

Professor McGonagall- er, Professor _Snape_, looked mad enough to spit nails. "Potter!" he/she yelled. And, as an afterthought, "Black!"

"Oh, no," Sirius said. "Jamie, I think the shit just hit the fan."

The McGonagall look-alike dragged James and Sirius by the ears into Snape's office. "I have never…" he/she began, breathing deeply. "Never in my entire career…"

Just then, the real McGonagall entered the room. "If you don't mind, Professor, I'll be taking my students back now…"

James and Sirius exchanged looks one more time. "Yes, Sirius," James said, "The shit really has hit the fan this time."

"Detention!" McGonagall yelled. "I can't believe this, not from students in _my_ House! And Prefects, no less!" Having vented her rage, she sat, trembling still with anger or perhaps shock, staring at them. "You two are going to be scrubbing the trophies for a month of Sundays, you realize. Dismissed."

But when they left, and after she'd checked that the door was shut, Minerva McGonagall had a laugh like one she hadn't had in years.

The next night, Sirius and James didn't make it back to the common room until nearly one o'clock in the morning. "I'm so dead," Sirius groaned, flopping backwards onto his bed. "I think my hand is going to fall off."

"Shut up and sleep, Sirius."

No luck. Sirius was the same restless spirit that he'd always been. "James?" he whispered into the darkness. "You still awake?"

"I was having nightmares about cleaning trophies and decided not to sleep tonight. What do you want, Sirius?"

Sirius leaned over the bed next to his, making sure that Remus was still asleep. He was. "How long do you reckon Moony and Redwood'll last this time?" he asked, careful not to wake Andy either.

James snorted. "With Remus' attitude lately? They'll break up again before Halloween and be back together by Christmas. It's their strange relationship that'll kill them in the end, honestly…"

Sirius snickered. "Yeah. Eventually their brains will stop comprehending it all and explode."

Deciding that this conversation was going exactly nowhere, a common occurrence with Sirius, James pulled his pillow over his head and promptly fell asleep- but he still had nightmares of polishing trophies.

"Things are not going well," Dumbledore confided to his Transfiguration professor one night in his study. "The Dark Lord is taking over… dark times are upon us."

McGonagall looked distinctly nervous. Although she didn't hold with that Divination nonsense, there was something about the way Dumbledore said it… she knew it was true. Minerva swallowed hard. "Three more students disappeared over the summer, Headmaster," she began quietly.

"I know," he answered softly. "I know…"

"But what are we to do?" the Professor asked. "What can we do, when people are afraid even to speak his name already?"

"We must keep our spirits high," Dumbledore said wisely. "We must not give in to despair… a Diviner friend of mine told me something recently… it has given me hope. We must not lose hope, Minerva… we must never lose hope."

"And how to keep our spirits up?" McGonagall inquired. "And those of our students? In such dark times, I should hardly feel right being _happy_…"

"We'll think of something, Minerva," the Headmaster answered. "We always think of something."

During the next few days, things resumed their old pattern- Potions was still horrible, Quidditch practice was difficult, History of Magic was a bore. Lily, James and Sirius got top marks, Remus and Ally trailing close behind (it seemed all Remus did was study), except in Defense Against the Dark Arts, where they were tops. By the time the beginning of October rolled around, everyone was quite used to their new schedule. 

At breakfast the morning after Ally and Remus got back from the Shrieking Shack (Remus was especially withdrawn this year, for some reason), Dumbledore stood up, looking especially grave. James turned to Sirius. "What do you suppose it's about this time?" he asked. Sirius merely shrugged.

"After much deliberation," Dumbledore said without preamble, "we've decided to hold the Halloween ball again this year, despite the disaster of last year. The student responsible, as most of you know, _was_ eventually caught and expelled. I expect there will not be a repeat episode of last year. That is all."

Sirius, Remus and James blinked at each other. Finally, James spoke: "Well. That was unexpected."

"Okay," Allya said, plopping her books down beside Remus in the nearly empty common room the evening after. "What's eating you?"

Remus flinched at her choice of words, but didn't look up from his DADA textbook. "Nothing." The tone of his voice indicated otherwise.

Ally sighed, reading him like a book. "Bullshit."

He finally looked up. "When I say it's nothing, I mean it, okay?"

She leveled 'the look' at him. "If it's nothing, why can't you talk about it?"

The Defense Against the Dark Arts book slammed shut. "Honestly, Ally, shove off. If I don't want to talk, I don't want to talk, okay?"

"Not okay. I'm serious- no, I'm Allya," she corrected herself, "You need to talk about it. That's what I'm here for. To listen."

"Then maybe you shouldn't be here." Remus just walked away, doing his best to ignore the pained look upon his (once again) ex-girlfriend's face.

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And Then There Were None

Part Two: Sirius and the King of Swing

* * *

"He didn't." The conviction in Sirius' voice belied the truth- he had.

"He did," Allya said miserably, staring blankly at the wall of the dormitory. "He did. He just- he just walked away." A fat, silver tear traced a path down her cheek. Sirius reached out to wipe it away. 

"Don't do that… don't cry…" He found himself unable to say more. Something was troubling both of his werewolf friends. He wanted to know what it was. _God, I can't stand it when they cry. Why can't I stand it when they cry?_

Ally straightened, wiping the last trace of misery from her face. "You saw that?" she asked, a bit shakily.

Sirius was more than a little confused. "Plain as the nose on Snape's face," he said in a vain attempt to be funny.

Allya swore to herself. "Oh no… Sirius, maybe you better leave… before the third years start thinking up rumors of us shagging up here…"

The rumors never started, mostly because everyone knew that Remus and Sirius' friendship would be ruined if any such thing ever happened. This was a lucky thing for everyone concerned- try explaining to your best friend that you shagged his ex-girlfriend moments after they broke up. Sirius _didn't_ think so.

Luckily, neither did Ally or Remus.

And so, with the week of the ball rapidly approaching…

Naturally, the Shrieking Shack was hell. Neither Ally nor Remus spoke a word. When James and Sirius came to pick them up, Ally stayed close to Sirius and raised the fur on her neck in a catlike fashion whenever Remus got too close, whether by design or accident.

James noticed the change too, but said nothing- it was not his place to interfere. He wasn't the resident peacekeeper. Usually, the role fell to Allya or Remus. _The irony_, he thought, _oh, the irony_.

Sirius caught up with Ally in the common room the day she got back. "Ally- Can I talk to you for a minute?"

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Uh oh, something inside Allya seemed to scream, _You know what's coming… run. While you still can…_ She silenced that tiny voice with an inward glare. "I'm listening- talk."

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You bastard, Sirius' conscience yelled at him. _You know it's going to hurt Remus, and you're still going to do it. I'm telling you, walk away. WALK AWAY! No. Run. Run, Sirius… she's gonna kill you… _

'Shut up,' he told it promptly, and then… "Want to go to the Halloween dance with me?" he asked finally.

Allya looked vaguely confused- but not shocked. "I thought you were going with Mioré?"

Sirius sighed. "Waited too long. She's going with Amos Diggory."

Ally's eyes widened in surprise. "The Hufflepuff seventh-year who thinks the world turns just for him?"

Sirius nodded ruefully. "That's the one. So… what do you say?"

"I say… meet me in the common room at seven-thirty on Halloween."

As things turned out, by Halloween there were no sixth-year Gryffindors left without a date, not even Remus, who was sulking, or Adrienne, who was generally so annoying that nobody could stand her. Ally and Remus were officially not speaking- _again_- and their love-hate relationship was beginning to annoy the odd person here and there. 

Mioré was beginning to regret her decision to go with Amos Diggory, though- no matter how good-looking, he was exceedingly arrogant and kept trying to parade her beauty around his seventh-year friends. Whenever this happened, Sirius and Allya did their best to keep straight faces- but decided that, in the end, Mioré deserved it for saying 'yes' in the first place. 

The feast was held early on Halloween- around six o'clock- because no food was to be served at the dance afterward. It was impractical, especially after what had happened last year. Ally shuddered. Vague, indistinct images that came from being very, very drunk ran through her brain.

At seven-thirty in the Gryffindor tower, people assembled to go to the dance. Remus Lupin was not present- he had already gone to pick up his date from the Ravenclaw common room. Erina, or something, Allya couldn't quite remember- or was pretending she didn't care.

The costumes she and Sirius had decided on were Muggle-ish and matched perfectly- almost Spanish in style, her dress was blue and short, matching the sash on Sirius' black tux. The party started in just a few moments- everyone rushed to the Great Hall. 

Everyone concerned, even Slytherins, agreed that Hagrid had really outdone himself this time. The decorations were simply spectacular, complete with live bats, man-sized jack-o-lanterns, and orange and black fireworks that shot off every three minutes precisely.

Only water was served- there was no use having a repeat of the year before, as Dumbledore had said. When the jazzy, up-beat music started, Sirius got a manic glint in his eye. He turned to his 'date'- "Do you swing?" he asked, the 'doggy grin' making an appearance.

"Do I!" Ally exclaimed, jumping up… and sat back down again warily, chancing a glance at Remus- he was resolutely ignoring her, Sirius, _and_ his date. "Wait a minute… I thought you didn't dance?"

If possible, Sirius' grin widened. "Baby, I may not dance, but I am the _king_ of swing."

Allya laughed. "I'll give you a run for the royal title- I've taken lessons since I was four."

As the majority of the students hadn't a clue how to swing dance, the floor was mostly empty- and all the better, too. When Ally and Sirius hit the floor, most who _did_ know how stopped to watch, keen to take hints from the obvious masters of the dance.

They whirled, twirled, and whorled around the dance floor, pulling off complicated moves like trained professionals. "Think you can handle a flip?" Sirius asked, spinning Allya off and away again before she came right back.

"Can _you_?" she retorted, and he flipped her over his arm as if they'd been practicing their entire lives. "Sirius, where'd you learn to swing?"

"On the road this summer," he answered, concentrating on a complicated set. "Dance club in Whales…"

Allya grinned. "Okay, who was she?"

Sirius smiled, but didn't answer, and before he could even think of anything to say, amazingly enough, Ally had flipped _him_. 

"Gonna answer me, or do I have to try something that will _really_ be painful?" Now Allya was the one with the manic glint.

"I give," Sirius laughed, "I'll tell you all about it later."

"Promise?" Allya quirked an eyebrow.

Sirius laughed again. "No."

How A.J. managed to give 'the look' in the middle of a complicated dance sequence was pretty much beyond everyone's comprehension… but, then again, many things about many people were beyond comprehension. Finally, Sirius gave in. "Fine…" 

After a number of less complicated dance moves, the song ended. The masters' final pose was somewhat awkward for both of them- but the crowd was _loving_ it. Ally was bent over backwards, breathing heavily, Sirius supporting her waist with one arm while holding her hand with the other. He, too, was breathing heavily, but neither of them could contain the grins threatening to escape onto their faces. Finally they stood, clasped hands, and bowed to much applause (or booing and dirty looks, from the Slytherins). 

"Encore, encore!"

"Bravo!"

"Brava!"

"Bravissimo!"

Catcalls and cheers soon overcame the "boo"ers and dirty looks, but Sirius and Allya were too tired to continue, and sat back down at their table, exhausted.

"We _have_ to do this more often," Allya said when she was again capable of intelligent speech.

"Agreed," Sirius said, still a bit winded. "Although next time we should rehearse first and really blow them away.

"You don't think we blew them away?"

"Point taken."

Back in the Gryffindor Tower at around midnight, James, Sirius and Ally were discussing ways of _initiating _the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Professor Quinn. 

"I'm telling you," Sirius was saying, "a fake wand isn't good enough! I mean- we have to prove ourselves… more capable of pranking than those Beauxbatons… erm, gits." 

Ally grinned, careful to note Remus' sullen entrance through the portrait-hole but not to acknowledge it. "Careful, Sirius… some people consider the fake wand bit to be classic."

"Classic, shmassic," Sirius said, "we need something _original_."

"Original, eh?" Prongs smiled his most devilish grin. "I have just the thing…"

And so Remus went up to bed unnoticed… James had had his back to him the entire time, Allya was ignoring him as he was her… and Sirius was still angry with him for hurting Ally in the first place. He and A. J. _had_ always been close, after all. And Remus had hurt her badly.

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And Then There Were None

Part Three: Green With Envy… and Blue With Guilt

* * *

The next day's Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson was one of the more colorful experiences to be had with Professor Quinn… the man had a great love of Quidditch, and tended to favor the Gryffindors a bit, as they were generally the bravest ones while tackling his creatures.

Sirius' journey to the front of the classroom and the small vial he emptied on the teacher's chair went unnoticed at the beginning of class… but everyone remembered by the end. Once Professor Quinn stood up again to write the spell for detecting Dark forces in the area, the chatter started- the professor was wearing white underwear with little red hearts.

Sirius, James and Allya clasped hands- the vanishing solution was perfect in every way. Welcome to Hogwarts, Professor Quinn.

Other than that incident, November started as Novembers often do, and before anyone knew it, the first Quidditch match was upon them.

"Hufflepuff," James began, and then, "Hufflepuff. They've got Diggory as Seeker, all we need is a mirror and we'll win hands down…" He grinned dryly. "Don't suppose it's a conventional tactic, but it ought to work. C'mere, Allya."

A bit bewildered, Allya stood. James turned her so that her back was to him, and a few minutes later, a portion of the back of her robes was transformed into a lightweight, flexible mirror. "Perfect. Now, you get to play diversionary- fly around in front of him till he notices, then just keep him entertained… shouldn't be too hard. Warren and Arika can play extra hard for you. That's all… let's go!"

Ally and the rest of the team were sure, of course, that James hadn't meant what he'd said- they knew it for a fact. Nonetheless, when Allya got onto the field, she couldn't help but smirk in Amos' general direction before she mounted her broom and soared into the sky.

It was soon apparent that there was no doubt in the crowds' minds as to what the purpose of the mirror was. In fact, Amos was already following Ally around the field… Sirius was laughing so hard he was having a hard time wielding his club. Even Remus, who had been in the sourest of moods lately, almost smiled. 

The overexcited Ravenclaw fifth-year that was commentating seemed to think the ploy was hilarious, although she never said anything that would tip Amos off, of course. Hufflepuff got the Quaffle early in the game, and scored a quick goal before Gryffindor could warm their Keeper up properly.

"And Hufflepuff takes an early lead, 10-0… an incredible interception by the Followed One, a pass to Arika Thompson of Gryffindor, who shoots- no, looks like the Keeper's got it- it's in, it's good! 10-10! Astounding!" 

Sirius and Remus wove in and out of their competitors, watching James above them. Amos was still following Allya around the pitch. Bored, Sirius swatted a Bludger towards the Quaffle- and, amazingly, hit it straight through the goal. 

"Exquisite play by Black of Gryffindor and they take the lead, 20-10! Have you ever seen anything quite like that?"

James took a dive so suddenly that nobody saw it coming- he was speeding towards the ground with incredible velocity- Amos finally took his eyes off Ally's backside and dove, too- they were going to crash- _James had the Snitch_! Gryffindor had won!

"Superb, brilliant, extremely risky catch by Potter, the Gryffindor Seeker…" the rest of the girl's commentary was lost in the cheering crowds converging upon the teams.

The victory party was dull- James, Sirius, Ally and Remus were found nowhere near it. James and Sirius were serving detention for the vanishing solution trick (Quinn caught them laughing) but Ally had gotten off scot-free… and gone looking for Remus. He'd been in hiding long enough.

The Marauder's Map showed that he was headed towards the Shrieking Shack… Allya folded the map and went in after him.

"What are _you_ doing here?" The voice was accusatory and nearly hurt in nature… it belonged to Remus, but didn't sound like the Remus Allya knew.

"I was about to ask you the same thing," she said, searching his face for whatever possessed him. "But I see I won't be getting an answer any time soon."

"Why aren't you in there…" Remus swallowed, brow still furrowed, unmoving as ever on the sofa. "Why aren't you with Sirius?"

A million things in Allya's brain clicked together, forming one huge, complex, ridiculous puzzle. "You're _jealous_." Allya was totally amazed. So he was human after all. "Remus Lupin, tragically heroic superhuman figure from my strangest and often scariest dreams, is _jealous_." She sank onto the couch. "And that's not all."

Remus simply glared at her. _You can't tell her_, a voice said. _You can't tell her… she'll know what a monster you really are._ At the same time, another of those pesky inner voices decreed, _She already knows you're a werewolf… _"I am _not_ jealous." It came out not as words, but as a barely comprehensible growl.

"Then tell me what the problem is." The angry expression was gone… Remus realized with a start exactly what he'd done and his heart sank to somewhere between his knees. All that was left in her beautiful sapphire eyes was pain, betrayed trust, misunderstanding… and something else.

Remus was quiet for a long time. It broke his heart, literally, to hurt Ally… but after what he'd done… she deserved better.

"I deserve to decide for myself," she said, as if reading his thoughts. "It can't be that bad."

"It is," he assured her quietly. Allya was astounded at the hoarseness of his voice. 

"I deserve to decide for myself," Allya said again, looking into his eyes this time. "And I won't tell anyone else. You know that."

Remus nodded, gathering his thoughts. "August the twenty-sixth," he said. The date ran through Allya's mind- the full moon after the blue moon. "I got out of the basement," Remus continued quietly.

Whatever Ally had been expecting, that wasn't it. Her mouth hung open in shock. Remus resumed his tale, oblivious.

"I woke up in a strange wood… there was a strange calmness in the air… it smelled like death," he spat the word. "But the worst… the greatest sin against magic itself one can commit…" He swallowed, and when he started speaking again Allya had to lean forwards to hear. "I killed a unicorn that night," he said softly. 

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Oh, by all the Greek gods… Tears formed in her eyes, but she wouldn't let them fall, for Remus' sake. "Oh, Remus… I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't know…"

He turned away, afraid of her disgust.

But she wouldn't let him leave, and pulled him against her shoulder. Remus sobbed ashamedly into her, letting her absorb some of the pain… so that he could live his life once more.

Sirius was in the common room when they returned; a red-eyed Remus leaning heavily upon his ex-girlfriend, Ally herself looking like she wanted to cry, but couldn't do it in front of Remus.

He shot her a questioning glance- 'later,' she mouthed, before escorting Remus up to his bed and climbing tiredly back down again.

"So?" he asked quietly.

"I just need to cry," Allya said quietly, and she cried all her tears until there were none.

THE END


	2. You Hope She Knows

Can't Hear the Words ****

You Hope She Knows

lone astronomer

Disclaimer: Everything is either unclaimed, or is J. K. Rowling's. 

Clarification: Is 'And Then There Were None' really a book already? Darn, I knew it sounded too familiar. Oh well.

Archive: Everywhere and anywhere as long as I hear about it and it maintains its original form, my name, and the standard disclaimers.

Summary: Two predictions by Dumbledore's personal Divinations advisor, a great shouting match, and… Can you say 'unforgivable sinner'? Do you know the song? Do you know what Remus' werewolf form _did_? Well, do you?! That's what I thought. So… read on, wayward reader.

Author's Note: Finally got around to changing my name. Enjoy. - the artist formerly known as *R*e*d*W*o*o*d*

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Kinda lose your sense of time 

Cause the days don't matter no more 

All the feelings that you hide 

Gonna tear you up inside 

You hope she knows you tried 

Follows you around all day 

And you wake up soaking wet 

Cause between this world and eternity 

There is a face you hope to see 

You know where you've sent her 

You sure know where you are 

You're trying to ease off 

But you know you won't get far 

And now she's up there sings like an angel 

But you can't hear those words 

And now she's up there sings like an angel 

Unforgivable sinner 

You've been walking around in tears 

No answers are there to get 

You won't ever be the same 

Someone cries and you're to blame 

Struggling with a fight inside 

Sorrow you'll defeat 

The picture you can see it won't disappear 

Not unpleasant dreams or her voice you hear 

You know where you've sent her 

You sure you know where you are 

You're trying to ease off 

But you know you won't get far 

And now she's up there sings like an angel 

But you can't hear those words 

And now she's up there sings like an angel 

Unforgivable sinner 

Maybe one time lost 

But now you're found 

Stand right up before you hit the ground 

Maybe one time lost 

But now you're found 

Stand right up before you hit the ground 

Hit the ground 

You know where you've sent her 

You sure you know where you are 

You're trying to ease off 

But you know you won't get far 

And now she's up there sings like an angel 

But you can't hear those words 

And now she's up there sings like an angel 

Unforgivable sinner

- Lene Marlin, _Unforgivable Sinner_

* * *

A thick haze clouded Allya's mind- vaguely she remembered something of a traumatic evening spent partially in the Shrieking Shack, partially in the Gryffindor common room. She opened one eye and stared out of it, trying to blink away the fog that threatened to let her fall back asleep again. _Thank the Greek gods it's Sunday morning_. When she was awake enough to actually _see_, she realized that she was still in the common room, and that something was on her leg.

"Gerroff, Sirius," she groaned, slapping him with a pillow.

Sirius grumbled, but made no move to comply.

Allya hit him again."Get _off_," she shouted.

Sirius mumbled something about demanding werewolves, then rolled off her feet. "Good morning to you, too, Sunshine."

"Shaddup." Allya stretched and moved off of the couch. "Well. That was different." _I can't feel my toes_, she thought desperately._ Sirius must be heavier than he looks._

Sirius suppressed a smile. "You mean that it's not a Monday, or that it's not Remus?"

Allya leveled her best glare at him. Sirius cringed. "Both." She extended an arm and pulled him to his feet. "It's only ten after six… sadly, too late to go back to sleep and too early to go to breakfast. So what do we do?"

Sirius grinned and produced a pack of cards from a pocket. "Up for a game of Exploding Snape?" (A/n: yeah, it's supposed to say 'Snape'.)

When Remus awoke there was a pounding in his brain like there had never been before. It felt as if a herd of very fat, angry elephants had trampled over his skull and flattened it like a pancake. Guilt washed over him- a low ache cut deep into his heart- at the horrors his wolven form had committed. Fresh guilt sprouted, too- how had Allya felt when she found out? Maybe he shouldn't have told her…

At least the bizarre half-life of legend wasn't affecting him… unless one called life without Allya a half-life (which Remus was inclined to do). The wolf, too, was unaffected. Perhaps such a completely evil and insane creature that couldn't control itself… But a werewolf only lost control around humans… didn't he? 

With sudden clarity, he remembered- there _had _been a human there that night… the unicorn had sacrificed itself to save her. 

More guilt. 

He washed it away with an inward sigh, picked up his robes and headed for the showers. It would be a long Sunday… he could feel it.

Longer than Remus knew. When he made it down to the common room, Sirius and Allya were in their pajamas, chasing each other around the room with their wand-tips sparking. Or, more accurately, Sirius was chasing Allya around with the tip of his wand sparking, Ally was running and laughing, jumping over furniture, and waving a love-letter from one of Sirius' old girlfriends. No- Remus looked again, analyzing the handwriting from a distance, it was definitely _to_ one of Sirius' old girlfriends…

" 'Oh how my heart longs for you'?" (A/n: that's too many Kali Ma fics talking, sorry…) Ally recited, cackling, as she jumped behind a chair, running from Sirius' wand. "Really, Padfoot, you need eloquence lessons…" She peeked out from behind a corner, but at that moment, Sirius attacked- he sneaked up and knocked them both onto the couch, tickling her sides mercilessly.

"Sirius… stop… can't… breathe…" When she finally stopped gasping, she became increasingly aware of something- "Um… Sirius? Are you going to get off of me? Or were you planning on skipping breakfast?"

"Me!?" Sirius yelped. "Skip breakfast! I _don't_ think so!"

"Leave it to Sirius," Remus muttered, head down as he left the Gryffindor Tower. "Skipping Potions is okay, but heaven forbid one should skip a meal…"

"I'm bored," Allya announced about five minutes after they'd left the table. "I'm bored, bored, bored, I'm so bored I'm making this into a song… let's go to Hogsmeade," she said.

Sirius clapped a hand over her mouth when some passing Hufflepuffs gave her an inquisitive look. "You've _forgotten_, Ally," he said forcefully. "_It isn't a Hogsmeade weekend_." When they were gone, he removed his hand from her mouth.

"Oops."

"C'mon," Sirius said, "Let's go get the cloak…"

Fifteen minutes later, and they were in Hogsmeade. "To Zonko's, then?" Sirius asked, pulling off the cloak and grinning.

"Sirius, I'm fully stocked!"

"Oh. Right. Um… Butterbeer, or back to the castle?"

"Bored. Bored, bored, bored. Back to the castle."

Fifteen minutes later… Allya was still bored. "I'm still bored."

Sirius shook his head, marveling at the strange creature that was his friend Ally. "And the reason for this would be… you are simply insane. A lunatic. _Nutters_."

"Speak for yourself," Ally muttered, seating herself upside-down in one of the overstuffed chairs. "I'm perfectly sane… just a tad on the crazy side." 

Sirius peered at her as if he had never seen her before… for the first time he noticed the bags under her eyes and wondered if they were always there, or just a result of too little sleep the past night. 

"So what do you want to do?" James, Lily, Remus, and the rest of the Gryffindor crew were nowhere to be found, and it was beginning to get to her.

"Wanna shag?" Sirius asked, grinning.

Allya's eyebrows collided violently above her nose. "Sirius, you prat, get your mind out of the gutter." She sent all of the pillows in reach flying at him, too, just for good measure.

"I'll take that as a no," Sirius said, pretending to be miffed while unburying himself from the mountain of fluff.

"You do that."

"I plan to." There was a long, very uncomfortable silence.

Finally, Allya spoke. "This is really hard, you know."

Knowing, by her tone, that something was up, Sirius raised his head to meet her eyes- she was sitting the right way in the chair, finally. "What is?"

"This," she answered, making a sweeping gesture with one delicate hand. "All of it. Being with you, not Remus. Hurting him that way… I don't think I can do it, Sirius." She looked utterly hopeless.

Sirius sighed dramatically. "I know… but Remus doesn't have to know. Can we try?"

Ally smiled weakly. "There is no try, Sirius."

He stared out the window- it was raining heavily, with lightning and thunder to boot. Somehow it reflected his inner emotions… Remus shivered. _I must be the eye of the storm_, he thought darkly. _All this shit I can't deal with…_ He sighed. 

Allya and Sirius were visible through the window- running around in their Animagi forms splashing through the puddles. The dark ache resurfaced. _She was my way out._

No other escape for Remus, though. Nothing could set him free- nothing could heal his wounds… or almost nothing. Allya had always been the perfect cure. 

Swallowing, he looked up out the window once again- they were gone. A fleeting thought ran through his mind before he lay down to sleep. _I hope she knows…_

November flew by quickly enough… before anyone knew it, the next full moon was upon them. Ally met Remus in the common room around two, wearing her light-blue-and-dark-red chili pepper pajamas underneath her heaviest cloak. 

"'Morning," Allya grumbled, not quite awake.

"It can't possibly be," Remus answered without emotion. "It's far too earl-" Madam Pomfrey opened the door to the tower. "Damn."

Following the light of a single candle down the dark hallways of Hogwarts, Remus and Allya remained in strained silence. When Poppy Pomfrey opened the door to the cold outdoors, a chill crept up Ally's spine, and she froze, stock-still. "They will be blessed with a child," she muttered in a low voice. "A child with his mother's eyes and his father's hair. The child will save us all."

"Erm- Allya?" Remus was bending over to look into her eyes. It seemed as if she was… gone. Not there- as in, somewhere else.

"She's spouting _that_ nonsense again, is she?" Pomfrey asked at Remus' bewildered look. "Well, never mind… she's given Dumbledore hope, which we're all grateful for, I'm sure." Poppy sighed. "But it's a good wait we're in for, you know, Remus- last time it was about next year's Head Students… come on, then." Her Irish accent seemed all the softer in the soft light of the candle. She snapped her fingers, and Allya awoke from her trance-like state. "Into the willow, both of you…"

"What was that all about?" Remus asked once they'd been locked in the shack.

"What?" Allya asked, honestly not knowing.

"That!" Remus exploded, ignoring the spiral of pain shooting up his spinal column. "This! Everything lately!" He stopped for breath, his eyes searching hers for an absolute truth he didn't know existed. "You," Remus said quietly. "You and Sirius. Thinking you could hide it! Thinking- I don't know what!"

"Well," she responded coolly, "it's your own fault- if you'll recall, _you_ broke up with _me_, Moony dear. If I'm not mistaken, that leaves me free to see other people."

"_Sirius was my **best friend**_!" Remus shouted, this time dropping to one of the couches from the pain in his left leg. "You have no idea how it hurts to see you with him! How I want to be with you again! How I refuse to even go there because you're too good for me. You don't understand how hard this is for me!"

__

No… And we were so careful, Ally thought to herself. _We were too sure… no one would know… and now…_ The chill came again- this time she couldn't move, and it wasn't due to the pain of the werewolf transformation. All she saw was Moony, laying in front of her in a pool of blood, a knife gripped in one hand. _No. No, no, no…_ "No, no, no, no, no, no…" It started at a whisper, but was soon very, very loud.

"Allya! Ally, get a grip!" Remus started shaking her shoulders. "Come on, snap out of it… Allya, this isn't funny… Allya…"

Finally, she stopped forming words and just screamed- the agony had started wreaking havoc on her spine- a single, long note, and then silence. 

"No," she said again. "No. Tell me you won't do it, Remus," Ally said, her voice deadly and low. "Tell me you won't do it!"

"Do what?" Remus asked sulkily, refusing to meet her eyes. 

"Promise me!" she demanded. The tears- the silver tears that were invisible to so many- were falling freely from her eyes now. "Promise me," she said softly. "Promise me you won't do it…"

Remus was still avoiding her gaze… he turned his face away from her. "I don't deserve you," he said hoarsely, drawing something from his robes.

__

No, damn it, no! "Bullshit!" Allya yelled, louder than she'd intended. "Expelliarmus!" she cried, not knowing how her wand had found its way into her hand. "No, no…" The pain was reaching a climax, emotionally and physically. _How can he do this?_ It suddenly struck her that this was how she had made _him_ feel… so long ago. _Greek gods… I never knew I could feel like that…_

Remus was trembling on the floor, the pain overwhelming him, as well. As the canine thoughts overran his mind, he thought he heard something from her he'd never heard before… three little words she had never said… and, although he could have been imagining them, he heard her repeat them over and over in his mind until his mind was no longer his own.

*END*

lone astronomer: Sorry to end it there… but you know how it is. The next one will be up pretty soon… I'm pretty sure it will take place somewhere after 'I Don't Know You Anymore', in other words in the _far_ future from this fic… 

REMUS: I'm _suicidal_? I'm in pretty deep, then, aren't I?

ALLYA: Deeper than even you know.

SIRIUS: Diviner's professional opinion?

ALLYA: Nope, I'm in with the lonely one.

SIRIUS: Hey, do we break up after this then?

ALLYA: I'm not at liberty to say…

SIRIUS: C'mon, I get to know, right?

lone astronomer: Er… I'll let ya know real soon. Promise.

MIORÉ: Why did I have to go to the Halloween ball with Amos Diggory? I _hate_ Amos Diggory…

lone astronomer: Sorry. I'll do some rearranging in the next one… promise.

SIRIUS: Good enough for me… Ally's too much trouble for a prankster to handle…

REMUS: Correction: she's too much for _you_ to handle. Which isn't saying a lot…

lone astronomer: I think we all know where _this_ is going. Tell ya what- I'm going to bed now. 'Night, all.


	3. Darkness on the Road to Nowhere

The Loneliest Number

Darkness on the Road to Nowhere

the lone astronomer

Disclaimer: I don't own anything… it's J. K. Rowling's.

Summary: Well… it's continued from 'You Hope She Knows'. We get the rearranging I promised… but that doesn't mean you're all gonna like _everything…_it actually means you're likely to hate it!

__

* * *

__

…Babys' got blue skies up ahead

But in this I'm a raincloud

Ours is a stormy kind of love…

-U2, _Sweetest Thing_

* * *

Sirius and James didn't visit Remus and Allya that night- Sirius was serving a detention and James couldn't control two werewolves by himself. Even their influence on each other was weak- they howled, growled, bit, and clawed as they usually did while alone. In fact, on Sunday at midday, when they were turned back, they were both bleeding heavily from numerous cuts and scratches, as well as bruised to the point that their arms were nearly blue.

"You two look horrible!" Madam Pomfrey exclaimed when she unlocked the door that day.

Allya nodded, her eyes hollow and mind preoccupied with a hundred million things she'd rather not have talked about. "Fix me?"

Various taps of the nurse's wand later, and Allya and Remus were back to functional capacity, although Ally was still pretty beat up. "Thanks."

"You should take it easy today, both of you…" Ally and Remus exchanged looks- it wasn't like either of them had been planning anything else…

" 'Pepper imps'," Allya said dispassionately to the Fat Lady. She and Remus stumbled blindly into the Gryffindor common room- well, she stumbled blindly- her eyes were very swollen from whatever she'd put herself through. No one could remember Ally ever looking _that_ bad. 

Sirius was lounging on the sofa, either waiting for his friends to return or sleeping off the aftermath of several detentions. He jerked his head as Allya and Remus walked in, and sprang up to his feet. "_What happened to you_?" he asked, about to take her in his arms but noticing Remus there in time.

"He knows, Sirius," Allya said hoarsely, hugging him anyway. 

"He- oh," Sirius said, pressing his lips together and looking over at Remus. He (Remus) shot another questioning- and somewhat hurt- look at both of them. 

"I can't do this anymore," Allya said, sniffing, but not avoiding his eyes.

Sirius nodded. "I know." Still, his voice was almost as hoarse as hers was…

"I'm sorry," she said simply, to both of them, and ran up into the girls' dorm. 

"We're in far too deep, you know."

"I know."

It didn't help much, Allya would later reflect, that when she got to her dormitory, it turned out that Lily had bewitched the ceiling and walls to sing Three Dog Night songs, punctuated here and there by the Beatles or another such group.

Allya had to snort sharply after listening to the words. She wrinkled her nose and brow in thought and sighed, staring up at the ceiling. _Two is _**not**_ almost as bad as one, and three is by far the loneliest number_.

She reached out and drew the curtains around her bed closed, then buried her face into her pillow and sobbed.

The thing about Allya's tears was… a long story. It started with her birth mother…

__

The woman- her normally brilliantly glossy red hair damp with sweat, knew that her unborn daughter was in grave danger. The child's older sister- only older by a few moments, to be sure, but still older- was safe already. However, larger than her sister as she was and always would be, Aylla had managed somehow to damage something inside her mother, endangering her only living relatives' lives.

Clarysse 'Red' Wood that the child still within her had to live if the other did. That was the rule with twins in her family… the Diviner, Allya Jade, had told her so. Balance was important, especially with the powers converging as they were. And so she made a very difficult decision, knowing it would kill her.

"Phoenix tears," she whispered, 'forgetting' about her deathly allergy. "Bring the phoenix tears…"

Moments later, Clarysse Wood was no more. In her place was a child- christened Allya Jade after the woman who had predicted her birth- and no ordinary child. She was destined to be a great Diviner, like the woman she was named after… though considerably less famous. And she was enchanted- had been before she was even born.

One percent of her body composition was made up of phoenix tears… that, combined with her mother's love and willingness to die for her, had enchanted her- or, her tears, to be precise. Only visible to those who loved her…

__

And so Allya had been adopted and grown up, and Aylla had also been adopted and grown up, and as they became older they differentiated in ways that no one could comprehend. All through Ally's life she had had the means to tell if someone truly loved her… her 'parents' had, of course, and a few of her other adopted relatives. Of course, most of this turned to revulsion when she became a werewolf at age twelve… and all of it changed again at Hogwarts, where already two could see the tears.

But by then there were only two. Ally's parents were dead, her other relatives were out of touch… that was the way she liked it. 

But there were still two, and her brain was nearly exploding just thinking about it.

__

If only all three of them could fight over Lily, Allya thought dully, _then I wouldn't have this problem_. Her mind seemed to have a will of its own- it wanted to contemplate more. Simply letting her imagination run wild was common for Allya, but not in that way.

Remus- well, there was a guy you could trust. He'd never betray any of your secrets, he was sensitive and caring and probably the sweetest guy you could ever meet. His deep dark secret made him a bit depressed sometimes and he could have been classified as a 'tragically handsome' figure, but put together with the right people at the right time and he could be as lighthearted and funny as anyone.

And then there was Sirius- bright, funny, cute, and a hundred thousand other adjectives still couldn't sum up Sirius. Sirius was Sirius (though not serious, not unless it was really important) and there were no two ways around _that_.

Remus. Allya loved him so much that it was a physical ache at times… but, although he'd only meant to protect her, he had ended up hurting her in a way that no one else could. Allya didn't like being vulnerable.

Sirius. He was so much fun to be around, and she _did_ love him, true… but not in the same way…

She shook her head. _You're reading too much into this again_, she admonished herself. Sighing, thanking the Greek gods that the music had stopped, she grabbed her cloak from her bedpost and rushed out through the common room with the intention of taking a nice afternoon walk.

The shouting match in the Gryffindor Tower was not at all what she'd expected. James, Lily, Sirius and Remus were spaced evenly around the common room walls, Mioré at the entrance to the common room, stock-still and her face as pale as her silver velvet hair ribbon. While Sirius and Remus were absolutely quiet and stock-still, James and Lily were screaming at the tops of their lungs. The normally quiet couple was making quite the scene.

"I'm telling you, James, _I didn't know he was going to do that_!"

"Well, it's not like you did anything to stop it from happening! And you should have known, given his history…"

"James. Brady. Kissed. Me."

"And I bet you enjoyed it, didn't you?"

Lily's emerald eyes blazed with poisonous fire. "Maybe I did."

"Maybe it's over," James said, still angry.

Her response, nonetheless, silenced the room. "I see no 'maybe' in our future, James Potter."

When both of the irate sixth-years had left the room, Allya had to blink in surprise. "Tell me that's not going to happen to me," she said slowly.

Sirius and Remus regarded her with non-amused expressions. 

"I would…"

"Except…"

"That I know it already has," Allya finished softly. She took a deep, cleansing breath, and blew the loose hairs out of her eyes. "Well. This has been a disastrous Sunday for the couples of Gryffindor Tower."

"You're telling me."

Defense Against the Dark Arts on Monday morning was torture- well, the Gryffindors had that class with the Slytherins (Potions was now held with Ravenclaw) and Professor Quinn generally hated everybody (except his top students, for example Remus and Allya), James and Sirius in particular. This particular day, he was picking on the very Irish, very red-headed, very Slytherin girl to Sirius' right, Siren O'Maley. 

"Miss O'Maley. The essay you wrote on ways to kill a vampire was so grammatically incorrect that I am reassigning it for Thursday…" Professor Quinn went on and on insulting Siren's spelling and misuse of the English language for so long that even the Gryffindors got bored.

"_Sod off_, Professor Quinn," Sirius finally exclaimed.

Professor Quinn turned a shade of absolute purple, rounding on his student. "Would you care to repeat that, Mr. Black?"

Sirius stood up. "I said, '_sod off_, Professor Quinn.' Sir." Neither title held any grain of respect.

Professor Quinn blinked, shocked for the second time by the sixth-year Animagus. "P-Professor Dumbledore _will_ be hearing of this, Mr. Black…"

Siren skipped out of the DADA classroom merrily, a huge grin on her face. It was a stark contrast to the normally sour expression she wore, and even the severe ponytail at the back of her head seemed to be bouncing with glee. "A _Gryffindor_ told Professor Quinn off… and he didn't _do_ anything! I could sing…"

Sirius raised an eyebrow at her. "I wouldn't advise it… you never know, Filch might make up some rule about singing in the hallways being forbidden…"

The redhead's smile only shrank a miniscule amount as she stuck out her hand. "Siren O'Maley. And you are the notorious Sirius Black."

Sirius dropped to one knee and kissed her hand- Siren's slightly bemused look was well worth it. "Am I that well known?"

She laughed- it sounded unnatural coming from her, as if she didn't get a chance to laugh a whole lot. "Severus Snape has been raving about you and Potter for years… I owe you one for the sodding off bit. Feel free to call in the favor any time."

Sirius nodded, something inside telling him not to deny her this. "I'll take you up on that some time," he answered, and then they went their separate ways.

"…and then she just walked away," he finished, breathing a sigh of relief that it was finally over.

Remus grinned. "Another one to add to the list, eh, Padfoot?"

Sirius looked mortally offended. "Me and a _Slytherin_?" he asked, aghast. "Never. No way. Not going to happen…"

A malicious glint appeared in Remus' eyes. "Not even now that Mioré has been, er, _seen_ with Monsieur Graves?"

"She- _what_?"

Remus gave Sirius a big, feral grin. "Ah… payback is a bitch, eh, Sirius?" He smirked and stalked off towards the portrait hole, thinking, _What goes around, comes around._ About five feet from the portrait hole, before it had even closed fully behind him, he stopped dead in his tracks and swore loudly.

Sirius came running, having Remus use language like that only on very few occasions, and repeated Remus' curse a trifle more graphically.

Beneath the suit of armor at the base of the Gryffindor tower was a silver velvet hair ribbon, a green skull-and-snake floating in midair beside the word "NO" up above in huge letters, and a note.

__

Her mind and soul shall be mine with time,

And her body won't be saved.

You know you shan't see her again

'Less drastic steps be taken.

A warning then I give you

Unless you're at your very best

You'll not live longer than she

Lupin, Potter and the rest,

But if you feel you must seek me out

These clues I send to you

To prove that I am worthy of

The challenges of two

For two challengers there shall always be

It is the way things are

One born of the darkest dark, 

And one started much lighter.

The clues, they follow as they are

And if you're to see them through

You must have constant vigilance

You must not be overconfident

To yourselves you must be true.

So journey through the Haunted Wood

Do not be deterred

A darkened rose shall lead your way,

But it's dangerous, be wary-

For I'll kill you if you're heard.

I'll kill you if the word gets out,

I'll kill Mioré all the same.

She'll die if you tell Dumbledore-

You'll die if silent you remain.

So come, Potter, Lupin, Black,

Come Evans, Nightrunner, all-

But be warned, for when you first slip up

Your Ministry will fall...

- N.O.

Remus and Sirius exchanged nervous glances. "Emergency meeting?" Sirius asked finally, trying to hide his extreme nervousness and despair.

Remus could only nod.

"She's _what_?" Allya's surprised, outraged, and more than scared outburst might have attracted attention to the room behind the picture of Sir Cadogan, but it was the wrong time of day for people to be wandering that hallway. "Oh, shit, oh, shit, oh, shit shit shit…"

"That's what I said," Sirius said numbly, staring down at the parchment in his hand, although that was _not_ what he had said by a long shot. Sirius' curses tended to be a bit more graphic. "What're we going to do?" He did his best to hide the tears welling up in his eyes, but everyone else was fighting them too, so nobody noticed.

A new figure entered the room, silhouetted for a moment in the corridor, but quickly slid the portrait shut behind her. "We're going after her," Siren answered, sitting on the floor. "I know what's been done and I, too, want vengeance."

Sirius blinked, trying to clear away what he thought must have surely been a strange dream. It was real. "Well then," he said softly. "Might I ask what you have to be vengeful for, and how you figured out who exactly was behind this so that you know it's them you want vengeance on?"

Siren simply glared. "I think those are rather personal questions."

Sirius had the good grace to look abashed.

"My uncle," O'Maley answered anyway. "Nyirman O'Maley. N.O."

Lily, James, and Remus maintained the silence they had held all evening. Finally, only Allya spoke. "Then we will go," she said resolutely, and the planning began.

"We have to tell Dumbledore," Lily said with finality. 

"We can't tell Dumbledore," James counted. "Mioré will die if we tell, remember?"

Lily fumed in silence. She and James were back to their bickering selves.

"We leave in one hour," Siren decided for them. "Unfortunately-" she paused for a moment, thinking, "or maybe fortunately in this case, I've been to visit him from Hogwarts and can lead the way. We leave in an hour."

It was somehow, at the same time, the longest and shortest hour of their lives.

"Cut it off," she ordered Lily, refusing to show regret. "I mean it. We're going on a trek through the Forbidden Forest. Knee-length hair won't help me any. It's impractical."

"But-" Lily began, fidgeting with her wand.

"No buts," Allya interrupted. "Do it already, before I change my mind…"

In a matter of moments, the blonde's hair was only to her shoulders. She tied it in a tight ponytail, as Lily did with hers. They grabbed their cloaks, their wands, and Allya took a tube of Esipret's Goo, just in case. 

In the common room, Sirius had succeeded in wearing a hole through the rug. "Are you about ready yet?" he asked, as Lily and Ally descended from their dormitory. 

"Quite," they answered together, so the five of them left the Gryffindor Tower.

They met up with Siren in the hallway just before the main exit onto the grounds. She had a sort of camouflage motif going on- she had done a Darkening charm on her hair and clothing. Slipping out from under an _extremely_ crowded new invention (co-invented by Allya, James and Sirius)- the Invisibility Blanket- Lily, Remus, Siren, and the inventors ran out across the grounds and into the woods.

It was cold, it was dark, and it was not at all pleasant, yet still they followed Siren O'Maley through the clumps of trees. Every step seemed to take a lifetime, every minute lasted an hour, every breath was breathed in silent agony for fear of being discovered.

Siren climbed up atop one of the trees, ignoring the prickling sensation at the back of her neck that meant danger was near. There was no moon that night- and a good thing, for it made telling the directions from the stars that much easier. For but a moment she was alienated, silhouetted against the black-and-silver sky, a lonely astronomer with her head in the stars and her feet nowhere near the ground. The way she liked it. "We're here," she called down, then scrambled down to join them.

The next tree over was the one that she was looking for. A simple branch snapped off with a wave of a wand and a few muttered words, and a trapdoor opened in the forest floor. She shivered, knowing what lay below. "After you," she said, and down they went.

Mioré could not remember ever being so cold in her life. Ever. She could not remember such pain as that which had been thrust upon her that night. She could not remember much of her past life, in fact, which worried her, because she knew that she was not as young as she used to be and should have had a past of some sort. 

She tried to smile a little- at least she still had enough cognitive ability as to be worried- but couldn't. Her efforts were made too painful by her bottom lip, which she appeared to have bitten through. The blood was running unchecked down her neck and onto her robes.

__

Disgusting, Mioré would have thought if she could have. _Yuck_.

The man approached her again, intent on making the young girl as miserable as possible, then killing her in front of her friends when they got there. Her residual life-forces would go a long way towards prolonging his already-aging-beyond-belief Lord's life. **She**is in Azkaban because of those friends, he thought with a hatred that could not be denied. _I will see them all dead before I leave this world._

Still, as he muttered, "_Crucio_," for the third time and thought of the challengers that were coming- two of them, he knew, there were always two- he could not help but wonder if Felicity Lorell would have done the same for him.

The five shapes trailing behind Siren O'Maley stopped as still as she did, when she did. _Well trained, are they?_ she thought to herself. _Perhaps not as well as Voldemort's Junior Death Eater club,_ she continued the thought with a grimace at her father's master, _but well enough._

The vicious three-headed dog her mentally unstable uncle had christened, 'Pumpkin' loped out of the shadows of the catacombs near the dungeon, intent on destroying the intruders. 

Siren gave a start- she hadn't thought of Pumpkin when planning this insurgency- but it was no matter. A swish of her ebony wand and her harp was in front of her, strings waiting to be plucked. In a matter of moments, Pumpkin was asleep. A simple charm performed by Lily while Siren was still playing, and he was sure to stay that way for a while.

"That was close," Sirius whispered, stepping out of the shadows but further into the darkness.

Siren nodded, wiping the sweat from her brow. "Too close," she said, and they continued.

Aside from that, and an encounter with a troll and a Death Eater ('_Obliviate_' on the troll's memory of seeing them and '_Petrificus totalus_' on the Death Eater, who was then rendered invisible for twenty-four hours courtesy of one of Lily's charms- the spells themselves were done by James and Sirius respectively) everything went smoothly. They reached the main dungeon, the one where they expected Mioré to be held, approximately two and a half hours after leaving Hogwarts. It felt like much longer.

The man who must have been Siren's uncle was busy watching Mioré writhe in agony for the sixth time that night. He seemed to be enjoying it immensely- he also seemed peripherally aware, because the moment the six would-be rescuers tried to slip into the room, he turned and cracked an evil grin. "Well, well," he said. "What have we here?"

Allya's blood turned to ice the moment he spoke. There was something not… _right_ about that man. She could sense it in the way that he formed his words, it was in his being, it was in his soul.

Siren, too, froze. Her uncle fixed her with a stare and she could not even remember her own name, let alone what she had come to this awful place for.

The silence was shattered by a footstep and one boy- no, one _man_'s- call to evil. Sirius. "I challenge you to a duel," he announced, his voice strong in the hollow room. "Who's my second?"

The bonds that seemed to have held her in place before were broken, as were all family ties she might have had. She did not care. The O'Maleys were known for being cruel and even her younger brother- he was ten- had expressed interest in joining the Dark Lord's circle. So they were no longer her family. "I'll back you up, Sirius."

"Foolish child," Nyirman O'Maley sneered at Sirius. "_Avad_-"

"_Petrificus totalus_," Remus said, in the same voice one might say, '… and the scones at tea today were simply magnificent, weren't they, darling?…'.

Nyirman O'Maley hit the floor hard, and as soon as Sirius had Mioré tucked into his arms, they sped off into the darkness of the catacombs. 

It was unclear to them in later years how they got past the troll again- and the Death Eater might still have been roaming around invisible- and the three-headed dog got Remus pretty badly, and Allya had to half-carry him back up the trapdoor in the forest… and then there was still the matter of the trek back up to the castle.

Drawn by the scent of blood- Remus' and Mioré's- many new things appeared on their way back.

A giant spider lunged out at them from the darkness- "_Stupefy_!" James yelled as Lily screamed. Somewhere in the distance one of the wolf-pack howled… a Boggart was similarly reduced to dust by the six of them- Mioré was still unconscious- the moon, a banshee, the man that must have been Siren's father, to name a few of its transformations. The moon did the can-can with a little black top-hat, the banshee did a great rendition of Carmen, and Siren's father got an Elvis-like hairdo and sequins.

By the time they got up to the castle, it was daylight. Professor Dumbledore met them at the front gates, somehow aware of everything that had happened. They all went to the infirmary or to their dorms, and none were heard from for an entire week. This was good, because no one would have been much heartened to hear of their endured hardships.

And so life went on, as life does.

But for seven of them, life would never be the same. As a wise woman once said, there were dark times ahead.

THE END


	4. For the First Time

For the First Time

For the First Time

lone astronomer

Disclaimer: The song is by Bryan Adams, everything recognizable as not mine (most of it) belongs to J. K. Rowling, and that is all.

Archive: Anywhere, as long as you have ALL of it and you tell me.

Summary: Events after 'Darkness on the Road to Nowhere'. 

Author's Note: I like this song, don't flame me… at the end I'll put up a funny song that has nothing whatever to do with the fic, but it is dumb and funny and… well, it's not my personal opinion, but it makes me laugh… I dunno, read it. Like I said, it's not my opinion, so don't flame me, 'cause I only posted it.

* * *

__

When you love someone - you'll do anything

You'll do all the crazy things that you can't explain 

You'll shoot the moon - put out the sun 

When you love someone 

You'll deny the truth - believe a lie 

There'll be times that you'll believe you can really fly 

But your lonely nights have just begun 

When you love someone 

When you love someone - 

you'll feel it deep inside 

And nothin' else can ever change your mind 

When you want someone - when you need someone 

When you love someone 

When you love someone - you'll sacrifice 

You'd give it everything you got and you won't think twice 

You'd risk it all - no matter what may come 

When you love someone 

You'll shoot the moon - put out the sun 

When you love someone 

-Bryan Adams, _When You Love Someone _

* * *

"Great Greek gods," someone in the hospital wing at Hogwarts muttered, swiping sleep from his eyes. He snorted. "Greek gods… I'm starting to sound like Allya!" He opened his eyes and surveyed the room he was in.

The seven of them- Lily, James, Remus, Mioré, Siren, Allya, and Sirius- laid on assorted cots spaced relatively evenly around the room. By far the worst damaged were Mioré and Remus- they were still unconscious. Mioré, who had been tortured for several hours by a certain Mr. O'Maley, broke several bones, smacked her head off of the dungeon walls, and bit through her lip, causing a nasty scar just below it. Remus had been attacked by a vicious three-headed dog on the way _out_ of Mr. O'Maley's dungeon during their rescue attempt; he had a nasty scar running down the side of his leg, where the dog had bitten him. (More canine bite-marks for Remus, poor guy!) The two of them were still out cold, and being watched over by an anxious-looking Madam Pomfrey and a grim Professor Dumbledore.

"So we have a live one, do we?" Dumbledore commented, making his way toward the cot Sirius was laying on. "You have a habit for getting yourself into sticky situations, Mr. Black."

Sirius shook his head. "Wasn't me this time. Mioré got herself kidnapped by Siren's crazy uncle."

Dumbledore blinked, allowing some of the sparkle back into his usually merry blue eyes. "I get the feeling there are some steps in between you've left out."

"Uh, you could say that," Sirius answered sheepishly. "For example, there was a ransom note that said if we told you, he'd kill her just like that."

The old headmaster thought for a moment. "Perhaps I should wait for everyone to be awake before asking any further questions."

Sirius looked relieved. "That might be best, sir."

The next morning was not entirely pleasant.

"This is not a pleasant sensation," Mioré commented as Madam Pomfrey mended the bone that had been broken into four in her left leg. "Ouch."

"If you hold still," Pomfrey told her, "it will hurt less."

"If I hold still," Mioré countered, thinking of everyone she had yet to visit with that morning, "I'll go insane."

"Better crazy with a healthy body than sane with eight nonfunctional legs, crossed eyes, and the inability to stop drooling."

Mioré shut up after that, and she stopped squirming, too.

Professor Dumbledore and the six rescuers entered the room at this point, excusing the nurse and taking seats on different cots. Dumbledore spoke first. "You seven have some explaining to do, I gather."

Exhausted, at first no one spoke. Very gradually, pieces of the story began to spill out, beginning with Mioré's story.

"I was walking back from the Ravenclaw common room," she began, only to be interrupted momentarily by Sirius.

"And _what_ were you doing in the Ravenclaw common room?" he asked.

Mioré just glared at him and continued, "I was on my way back from the Ravenclaw common room when I heard a noise behind that one suit of armor… I went to investigate and someone muttered something, I felt all sleepy. The last thing I remember before unconsciousness is the sensation of my hair being pulled."

"Which is how you lost this," Sirius filled in, tossing her hair ribbon to her. 

She caught it from the air, examining it to hide the fact that she was touched by his gesture. Little did she know, it was only a duplicate… Sirius had the real thing hidden in the bottom of his trunk. "Thanks."

Siren took the story from there- conveniently leaving the part about the room behind the portrait of Sir Cadogan out, and minimizing the parts about Death Eaters, trolls, nearly getting eaten by the giant three-headed dog, the Boggart, and everything else that was dangerous.

When she finally paused at the end of the tale- "… and then we saw you at the main entrance to the school, we came to the hospital wing and here we are."

"Alive and exhausted."

"But alive. Alive is the important thing."

Dumbledore took his time digesting this knowledge. "Then I would say," he said finally, "that you deserve the week off. Use it wisely," he advised, "it ends on Monday… you'll be excused from classes. Go home if you like. Miss O'Maley, I believe your father is here to pick you up this very moment, so… today's episode of the People's Court will reconvene next Monday after classes. Dismissed!" he finished merrily, and off they went.

Sirius had just gotten into his pajamas Thursday for a long and much-needed rest when he felt the draft of the open window. He shivered. Since he, Remus, and James had been having trouble sleeping, it was always open, even through the winter. It seemed to help a bit, but tonight…

He was the only one in the dorm. Andy was in the common room studying for an Arithmancy test, James and Lily were having a verbal bashing, Remus and Allya were 'talking'- no, they really were talking, so at least they weren't angry at each other, he thought. But why was it so cold?

Sirius slammed the window shut, falling back on his bed.

"Hey! Is _that_ any way to treat a lady?"

The voice- _Sweet mother of God,_ he thought, _I know that voice…_ Sirius turned around slowly, only to be shocked enough to fall back on his bed. "You- what- how…?"

She drifted over the furniture, wrinkling her pale nose at the socks and underwear littering the floor. "Not very neat, are you?" She finally settled into a chair.

"But- you're- you're a _ghost_," Sirius finally choked out, looking up at Siren. "You have to be _dead_ to be a ghost!"

Siren's ghost snorted. "Well put. So there we have it: I _am_ dead, Sirius."

Sirius' mouth hung open. "You're _dead_?" he said finally. "Um- Sorry to hear that?" he continued lamely. 

Siren could have laughed. "The look on your face, Sirius Black! It's priceless."

It was Sirius' turn to snort. "Cherish it for eternity." He stopped for a minute, "Bad choice of words," he said. "Sorry again. I'll make a note- no death jokes."

A faint ghost of a smile graced her transparent lips. "I suppose you'll be telling Dumbledore I won't be returning, then. And your friends."

"Our friends," Sirius corrected absently.

The smile turned full. "Our friends," she repeated, then to herself, _I like that._

"News!" Sirius yelled into the common room, Siren following at a distance. "We seem to have a bit of a problem with Miss O'Maley…"

"Oh, no," James groaned, "she hasn't decided to turn into an _awful_ Slytherin and run our knickers up the flagpole, has she?"

"Um." Sirius answered. "Actually, it's worse than that." He moved to one side, allowing the ghost to come forward. James, Remus, Lily, Allya, and Mioré all gasped. "She's dead."

And, at the sorrowful expressions on their faces, Siren cried for the first time.

"So can you tell us the Slytherin password? We promise to only steal Snape's knickers… wait, wait, we did that _last_ year…"

"What's left?" Allya asked miserably. "There is nothing left!"

"No, no," James said. "There's always something else. We just have to be _creative_."

"Mhm…" Sirius mused. "Have we put dungbombs in the Slytherin common room?"

"Yep."

"Turned Snape into a rabbit?"

"Been there."

"Done that."

"Set a Boggart loose in the Hufflepuff-"

"It's all been done," Allya said with finality. "The only person we haven't pulled a prank on is-"

Sirius and James stopped dead in their tracks, Sirius' eyes burning bright with anticipation. Allya let the words roll over her tongue, savoring their sweetness. "Brady Graves."

James' grin lit the entire hallway. "This is going to be _so_ much fun."

"Defense homework _again_?" Mioré growled, silver eyes flashing. "We were just assigned a six-foot-long essay last week!"

Lily, who was pouring over her third roll, checking the spelling, mumbled, "At least it isn't for Potions…"

"Why are you doing this, anyway?" Allya asked, not looking away from her current project- bewitching the ceiling to reflect the outside weather, just as it did in the Great Hall. Realizing that it would probably wake her up early in summer months did not deter her- it was, after all, the end of November. "Dumbledore gave us the week off, remember?"

Lily frowned. "Just because you and Remus are acing the course doesn't mean the rest of us are worry-free."

"And you and James are on top of everything else, so I wouldn't complain!"

"Don't mention _his_ name around me," Lily growled. "If you must speak of him, call him by his true name: the Source of All True Evil."

Allya snorted as James entered Gryffindor Tower. "Speak of the devil."

James grinned. "Who, me?"

"You're the one," Mioré confirmed for him. "Why so late?"

If at all possible, the grin widened. "Just been to the Ravenclaw common room…"

A slow smile spread across Ally's face. "You've done it, then?" she asked, as Sirius, too, followed closely by Remus, entered the common room. "Excellent…"

A shadow of nervousness appeared on Mioré's visage. "Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"

Even Lily almost smiled.

Friday morning at breakfast, even those six Gryffindor students that had the day off showed up for breakfast on time- Sirius, James, and Remus because they didn't want to miss their show, Allya because she was curious, Lily because she was going to classes to avoid James, and Mioré because she was nervous. Extremely nervous. With good reason.

Poor Brady. He walked into the Great Hall with bleach-blond hair (it was normally black) and hot pink eyebrows, a white polecat-like stripe down the back of his robe, green flippers, a Hogwarts cap with a little flag on top, and an orange umbrella. Heaven only knew how the boys had done it without him ever noticing. Allya howled, especially when he started speaking in German. Actually, most of the Great Hall howled (poor Brady!) but, alas, he had no knowledge that he looked any different than normal. As I already mentioned, the boys had done a terrific job.

Mioré shot daggers at Sirius- if looks could kill, he would have joined Siren in the land of the dead. Sirius just shrugged. "He deserved it."

"For what?" she inquired.

"Um… gotta go!" And so Sirius raced off down the hall.

Saturday morning, owls delivered packages to the survivors.

"Wonder what this could be?" Lily wondered, staring at the ominous Ministry seal.

"Subpoena," James answered noncommittally, speed-reading through the first three paragraphs. "Mr. O'Maley's trial. They need _us_ to testify?" he asked aloud, bewildered.

"Subpoena?" Sirius asked, reading his more thoroughly. "Oh. And a commendation for bravery… mmhm… Wonder if they give awards for most original prank?"

"You've already won that," Allya muttered, flipping through the three rolls of parchment that made up the subpoena. "Greek gods… what do they expect of us, anyway?"

"Witnesses for the prosecution," Lily explained. "Great… I've always wondered how a wizard's courtroom works."

"Sparky, you read a one-thousand-page book on that just last month…"

"But this is real life!" Lily protested. 

"'But this is real life!'" James mocked.

"Shut up, Spike-boy."

"Make me, Carrots!"

Lily's wand shot Spello-tape out the end and adhered James' mouth closed.

The trial, which included eight witnesses (including Mr. O'Maley), lasted two days (during which all seven students- sorry, six students and one ghost- were put under a witness-protection program) and convicted Mr. O'Maley, sending him to Azkaban.

When they returned to Hogwarts, more than a little exhausted, Mioré was immediately sought out by none other than Brady Graves. 

"Hey, Mioré," he said, approaching her from behind with a grin.

Mioré didn't look quite so enthusiastic- but Brady didn't notice. "Hi."

Graves offered her his arm. "Walk with me, talk with me…" They escaped the scrutiny of Peeves the Poltergeist with relative ease- a diversion created by an extremely orange Mrs. Norris was the perfect thing for it. So they wound up outside near the lake, and even though it was freezing out, Brady forgot to offer Mioré his cloak ('cause I said so! He's another stuffy guy, okay!?). Somehow they ended up talking about past relationships (Mioré suspected Brady was just jealous of her friendship with Sirius, but didn't mention it), and Brady commented, "You know, normally I go out with girls who talk so much if you hooked them up to a wind turbine, they could provide electricity for a small town in Surrey…" (*almost a direct quote from 'Good Morning Vietnam', which I also don't own.)

Mioré didn't laugh.

Brady, again, didn't notice. Mioré grabbed her head in agony- this was _not _going to be a long relationship. (_Thankfully,_ she thought.)

Sirius wasn't doing so well.

"Cheer up, Padfoot, old friend," James tried. "It's not the end of the world- and how long can it last, anyway?"

Sirius muttered something under his breath, then, "Don't know what you're talking about."

James, frustrated, left the dorm. "Going to find Remus…"

Sirius didn't follow him- he was feeling a bit off. It wasn't as if the usual crowds of girls weren't following him around… it was Mioré. Obviously. It was that- for the first time- he _really_ liked a girl, and couldn't tell her.

THE END

lone astronomer: Sorry, sorry, sorry to end it there… I'm tired again. You can wait a couple days for the next part if I give you this now, right? Right. So…

Mioré: Darn it all… Brady's boring me…

Brady: Hey! You forgot the 'Proud To Be Canadian' song!

lone astronomer: No, I didn't… like I said, not my opinions. The song belongs to the Arrogant Worms…

__

Proud to Be Canadian- Arrogant Worms

Our fair country Canada is north of the USA

Our Maritimes are lovely, and our prairies give us hay

You may think you Yankees are better than us Canucks,

But we don't need no micro-chips inside our hockey pucks

We know that you've got Disneyworld, and you keep it very clean

We don't have Bob Dole, we can drink when we're nineteen

We may watch your TV shows for hours and hours and hours,

We'll give you Alan Thick

But Shania Twain is ours

We're proud to be Canadian

We're awfully nice to strangers, 

Our manners be our curse

It's cool in many ways to be Canadian

We won't say that we're better, it's just that we're less worse

Your beer is not too tasty, and your weather can't be beat

We all fly south in the wintertime to escape the snow and sleet

We're pleased to say that we've enjoyed all your southern charms

But we get sunburned when we exercise the right to bear our arms

We're proud to be Canadian

We're awfully nice to strangers, 

Our manners be our curse

It's cool in many ways to be Canadian

We won't say that we're better, it's just that we're less worse

Alanis Morrisette, she is our latest pride and joy

She used to sing about high-school dances and chasing after boys

But now she is fed up and about as angry as can be

She's got one hand in her pocket and the other's on guard for thee

We're proud to be Canadian

We're awfully nice to strangers, 

Our manners be our curse (We're just too darn nice)

It's cool in many ways to be Canadian (Oh I like being Canadian)

We won't say that we're better (no), it's just that we're less worse

We're proud to be Canadian

We're awfully nice to strangers, 

Our manners be our curse (Can I get the door for you ma'am?)

It's cool in many ways to be Canadian (It's cool because it's cold up here)

We won't say that we're better, it's just that we're less worse

We won't say that we're better, it's just that we're less worse

(In a fake, high falsetto) Tears are not enough…


	5. And the Beat Goes On

And The Beat Goes On

And The Beat Goes On

Disclaimer: You know it's Rowling's, I know it's Rowling's… why lower my self-esteem further by forcing me to declare it?

Summary: James get beat up, Albus and Minerva talk about the war between love and hate, Ally and Remus get back together… again…

Author's Note: _Way_ too lazy.

* * *

__

When you were young and on your own

How did it feel to be alone?

I was always thinking

Of games that I was playin'

How to make the best of my time

But only love can break your heart

Try to be sure right from the start

Yes only love can break your heart

And if your world should fall apart…

I have a friend I've never seen

He hides his head inside a dream

Someone should call him 

And see if he can come out

Try to make sure that he's fine

But only love can break your heart

Try to be sure right from the start

Yes only love can break your heart

And if your world should fall apart…

-Everlast, _Only Love Can Break Your Heart _

* * *

Dawn on the ninth of December brought with it the first snowfall of the year. In the sixth-year boys' dormitory, where James, Remus, Sirius, and Andy were awoken by the extreme cold and the six inches of snow that had blown in the window.

Andy was relatively safe- he was far from the window and he'd had the curtains round his bed pulled shut. 

James, second to the window, had snow blown under his curtains and woke up with a very cold nose. Frost covered his glasses, which lay on the bedside table.

Sirius had been too knackered to close _his_ curtains, and the pile of melting wet snow on his covers was _not_ a pleasant thing to wake up to. "Ugh… gross."

Remus, who had the bed by the window, actually had frostbite. And a cold. A sneeze awoke the rest of the room's occupants. Suddenly a breeze ruffled the stack of papers sitting on his trunk, blowing them all over the room. Remus groaned- it was cold and he didn't feel like getting out of bed. With a half-hearted wave of his wand, the window slammed shut.

Sirius rubbed his eyes and gathered up a few of the drawings that had blown onto his bed, shuffling through them. The first was of a frustrated James and an absolutely livid Lily, yelling at each other across the common room. He passed that one over to James, who just scowled at him. Second was one that looked like a future James and Lily- close together near a warm fire, snuggling. As tempted as he was to keep that one, he kept looking through the rest. There were several other drawings- a stag, a wolf, a lion, a dog, and one of Mioré watching Sirius when Sirius was unaware of it (Sirius carefully folded that one and stuck it under his pillow). The last drawing in the stack that had buried Padfoot only moments earlier, however, easily took the cake (and Sirius' breath away).

It was a simple charcoal drawing, exquisitely detailed, the only color being a bit of gold and violet for accentuating important details. And she certainly didn't look like anyone Sirius knew- except Allya, but even then the only resemblance was the eyes: the drawing was a smidgen too tall and the golden hair was far too long and curly. Sirius just shook his head and handed the papers over to Remus, thinking, _That boy had it bad…_ It didn't occur to him to check the date at the bottom of the drawing… if he had checked, he would have seen that it was marked as 'December 7th'.

"What happened?" Andy, who had just cleared the fog from his brain, asked.

"We had the window open," Remus apologized. "Sorry."

Sirius did his best to quell the shivers that were coursing through his body, but found that he could not and so he rose to shower. Fifteen minutes later, while dressing, he swore loudly.

"What now, Sirius?" James mumbled from outside the bathroom door.

"Might want to do a Warming Charm on your knickers before you dress, boys…" 

The girls' dorm was just the opposite.

"Great wizards, it's hot in here!" Lily grumbled, opening one eye to the dormitory. No wonder- the fire was blazing and all the windows were closed to the snow. _Snow?_ She yanked the nearest window open and stuck her head out- yes, it was snowing already. Lily turned her head in both directions, taking in the beautiful white-covered landscape. _It's gorgeous._

Her thoughts were rather rudely interrupted by a wake-up call in the form of a big, fat, wet snowball sent in her direction by the boy who had once been the object of her every fantasy. Spitting out a great mouthful of snow, she cursed colorfully at James Potter, and added, "I don't know what I ever saw in you! You make me sick!"

James gave a cocky grin. "That's not what you said last night," he shouted back, and was promptly hit in the face by another wet snowball, this one dyed bright blue, formed from the snow on the windowsill. 

"Sicko." Lily ducked her head back inside, slamming the window rather harder than was necessary. That boy made her _so_ mad… 

"Am I to take it that you've been antagonizing Mr. Potter again, and lost?" Allya asked, propping herself up on one arm and quirking an eyebrow at her redheaded friend.

Lily scowled. "He started it," she pouted.

Allya cackled until the window opened again and a large lump of snow landed on her face.

In the Great Hall that morning, there was a good row between a certain 6th-year boy and a certain 6th-year girl, both in Gryffindor. Eventually, this resulted in a black eye for James and detention for Lily, which was unusual as she was almost always impeccably behaved.

"Honestly," Sirius grouched to Remus, "you'd think we were in first year again."

"Oh," Allya couldn't help but overhear. "You mean, they've fought like this before?"

Remus and Sirius laughed at her question. "They couldn't _stand _each other until the end of fourth year," Remus replied when he could speak again. "They _hated_ each other- at least, when we were around."

"Yeah," Sirius snickered. "But once we hid under James' Invisibility Cloak and spied on them, and they were actually civil to each other."

The ghost of Siren O'Maley interjected, "I remember when we used to tease them about that… that the two top students in their year couldn't even get along, even though they were in the same house and had all the same friends."

Sirius' grin widened, if that was at all possible. "If I recall correctly, that's part of what got them together in the first place." It was at this point that his features took on the 'I-have-a-brilliant-diabolical-plan-to-get-people-who-hate-each-other-back-together-again' look.

Allya stopped him before he could speak. "Don't intervene, Sirius," she said, more severely than she'd intended.

Sirius and Remus exchanged glances. "Diviner thing?" they asked together, grinning.

Ally let the smallest of her 'all-will-be-revealed' smiles cross her face. "Maybe."

Within a few weeks of the hair-cutting (Lily was still mourning over Allya's lost hair), it became apparent that something unusual was happening to it. 

Ally awoke the Monday after a relatively easy transformation, looked in the mirror, and frowned at her reflection. She supposed that, before, the weight of incredibly long hair had straightened it beyond what was simply straight- it was long and heavy and cracked around her like a whip whenever she let it down. Now, however, being cut nearly to her chin, it was- and oh, how she hated to think it-

__

Curling. Her hair was curling! And oh, _how_ she hated it. Allya let out a frustrated sigh and tamed it back into a bun- that way, no one could tell that her hair was no longer its gorgeously straight self. 

"Morning, Goldilocks," Remus called from the breakfast table. 

Ally gave him a look. Remus cringed. "Do. Not. Call. Me. Goldilocks!" she whispered, in a mock-deadly voice. "_Nobody_ calls me Goldilocks." 

This elicited a grin from her friend. His witty reply- which undoubtedly would have been witty, if I hadn't written it- was interrupted by the arrival of the mail.

Lily scowled down at the Muggle-letter in her porridge bowl, picked it up as if it were poisonous, and slit it open with her butter-knife. She seemed oddly afraid of its contents.

The scowl deepened to a disgusted frown as she read all the way through it- an invitation to her Muggle sister's terrible wedding to a revolting man, written on a botched invitation in imperfect calligraphy. Her reply was short and to the point-

__

Pet-

You know I'd never come to your horrible wedding.

-Lily

P.S.: Doesn't that awful Vernon bear an uncanny resemblance to a fat pig?

And, just to make her point, she sent it back with an owl, knowing her sister would be furious with her and relishing the very idea of it. Needless to say, Lily was in a very sour mood after her detention, which involved cleaning the boys' toilets on the third floor. She thought McGonagall was being a tad harsh on her for that, but the Head of the House's intentions were still not quite clear to the girl- _Don't fight with Potter_.

That night in Dumbledore's office…

"Come in, Minerva."

She did so, not quite hiding her annoyance that he always knew when she was there, and, with a great sigh, flopped down into one of his oversized chairs that badly needed replacing. "I don't see how it's going to work, Headmaster," she confessed after a long period of silence. "Potter and Evans… well…"

Dumbledore looked at her, expecting her to continue. "Yes?"

"Well, sir," she said, squirming under his intent gaze, "they appear to, um…" she faltered. "Well, to be frank with you, I think they hate each other."

Dumbledore laughed for the first time in what felt like ages. "But of course they do, my dear professor!" he exclaimed, wiping the tears of mirth from his eyes. "It's only to be expected, after all. But they'll get over it."

"They'll get over it?" Minerva echoed. And then, "What do you mean, 'it's only to be expected'?"

The Headmaster's expression grew somber. "My dear Minerva," he said gently (and perhaps a little bitterly), "They've broken each other's hearts. Who, in this world that is so quickly becoming deprived of love, would not hate someone after that?"

"This is getting confusing," Allya complained to Remus, Sirius, and Mioré. 

"What is?" Sirius asked.

"I think I lost you after the third black eye incident."

"Ah," Sirius said. "Second year." He and Mioré snickered a little. "We weren't there," he explained. "We didn't see anything, but…" A fit of laughter swallowed the last few words.

Mioré had to continue. "We heard it. Jimbo made a comment about her hair, and the next thing we heard was the sound of flesh-on-flesh." She punched a fist into her hand to demonstrate.

Allya grimaced. "Ouch. I get the feeling that's going to happen more and more often around here…"

James chose that minute to enter the room behind the portrait of Sir Cadogan, nursing a(nother) black eye, holding his glasses in one hand, and cursing softly.

He didn't even want to know why Remus, Sirius, Mioré and Ally were laughing so hard.

__

Godshit, he thought, conjuring some ice for his swollen face. _Never would have thought Kat Silvera would have done that…_

He'd just been rather summarily dismissed by a seventh-year Ravenclaw he'd asked out- and, he reflected ruefully, perhaps the comment he'd made about being every non-Slytherin girl's fantasy had been a little up on himself. _She always seemed so sweet, too,_ he thought dryly. 

Allya said something he didn't quite catch.

"Sorry, what was that?" he asked.

"I inquired," she said in a semi-irritated voice, "whether you had another run-in with Mrs Po- um, Miss Evans."

James didn't even notice her slip. "Kat Silvera," he answered, "really doesn't like guys who are full of shit."

"Like you," Sirius said.

"Like me," James agreed ruefully, trying not to bleed too much.

Lily tried hard not to look up when the noisy troop that was her fellow sixth-years entered the Gryffindor Tower, but something just yanked her head up. What she saw actually brought her up off of her feet and over to her friends (and James). She squinted in the dim light, brought her face close to his, pulled back, and announced, "I didn't do that."

Sirius grinned. "Correct, if a little surprising."

Lily just shook her head at him. "And where have you five been all afternoon? I didn't see you at dinner…"

"Oh," Remus said vaguely, "around."

"Around?"

"Around," Allya confirmed, leading Remus out of the common room and into the girls' dormitory by the hand.

Sirius watched them go with an amused expression- "Here we go again," he muttered, unable to contain his utter lack of surprise. He, too, left the common room, headed for the boys' dormitory. However, he did happen to overhear Lily's next few words-

"You know, you've got to start taking better care of yourself. It wouldn't do for this to get infected…"

Sirius allowed his grin to spread unchecked across his handsome visage. Everything was as it should be… for the time being.

THE END


	6. Rain, Replacements and Regrets

Rain, Replacements, and Regrets

****

What I do not own: Anything herein that you recognize as J.K.R's is hers. I don't own James, Lily, or Sirius. I don't own Hogwarts, or Dumbledore, or Madam Pomfrey. Sadly, I don't own a picture of Draco in leather; I don't even own Remus, just his immortal soul. So don't sue me.

(Wasn't that my best disclaimer by far?)

****

Summary: Since there seems to be dispute now over whether James was Seeker or Chaser… Well, I fixed it, anyway, in my own twisted way- he just gets changed from one to the other. Lily's last name, too, has been changed in all of my fics (and it was quite the job, I assure you). So in this section, we see very little of the Dark, a few more predictions by Allya, Remus and Allya have a nice, big row… yeah! Don't you all love it when they fight like the animals they are? J I'm sure you all prefer a more… Lily-ish James-ish fight, but those are universally popular and I go for the obscure.

**Author's Note**: This one's significantly, er, _steamier_ at parts than the other ones… most of the other ones, anyway… wear warm-weather clothing. You have been warned. And… wanna know why Allya's new nickname is "The Blade"? J Look no further…

* * *

__

I have been a beggar

And shall be one again

And few the ones with help to lend

Within the world of men…

I've sat on the street corner

And watched the boot-heels shine

And cried out glad and cried out sad

With every voice but mine…

- The Rankins, _One Day I Walk_

* * *

Surprisingly, all of the students returned from their holidays unharmed. Unfortunately, Arika Thompson quit Quidditch after New Years'- she was overburdened by the NEWTs, and needed to take some time off. This left James in a state of panic, for holding Quidditch tryouts again in January was not something he had originally planned on.

"Bugger. Who'm I going to get to play in March?" he asked the rest of the Gryffindor team one cold afternoon on the pitch.

"You could always try… what's her name again?" Sirius asked, eyes gleaming. "That fifth-year that's had her eye on you since…"

"That's about enough of that," James said, turning a very unflattering shade of pink. "Anyway, she can't Chase, I remember from tryouts last year. She's better suited to Seeker, but we have me already."

Remus bit his lip thoughtfully. "Is there any other position you can play, James?" he asked, rearranging the positions of all the Gryffindor players in his mind. "From her build, she wouldn't be a bad Seeker at all…" 

Allya slapped him. "Been looking at Cinda's body, have you?"

Remus winked devilishly and kissed her nose; Sirius had to turn his eyes away before his gag reflex proved too strong.

"But I _like_ my position," James grouched, looking vastly unhappy and blowing out an exasperated breath of visible air. He had to remove his glasses and wipe them on his robes. 

"For the _team_, James," Sirius said exasperatedly, rolling his eyes. "How bad can it be? The girls don't love you `cause you're Seeker- they love you `cause you're Quidditch captain, handsome and, if I might say so, charming, in an insufferable, full-of-shit kind of way."

"Thanks, Sirius." James let out a long sigh. "Fine… for the team, then."

James talked to her at lunch that day. "Cinda, a moment of your time?" She and her friends let their gazes travel over him without restraint. He almost said something, but thought better of it.

"Yeah. Be back in a minute, guys." When they were far enough away from her little club of followers (rumor had it that she'd started a James Potter fan-club, but there was no evidence and it couldn't be proven otherwise) and far too close to each other for James' prolonged comfort, she spoke again. "What was it you wanted to ask me, James?" Cinda fluttered her eyelashes and James fought the sudden, incomprehensible urge to vomit.

"Uh…" James snapped out of his self-induced trance. "Right. Well, Arika Thompson quit the Quidditch team, and we sort of need another player on short notice…" he squirmed.

"You want me to be Chaser?" Cinda asked, hiding her disappointment (that he was not asking her out) but raising her eyebrows innocently enough.

"Actually, I'm the replacement Chaser. You," he said, flashing her what he hoped was an enigmatic and not sick-looking grin, "would be Seeker. If you accepted."

__

James Potter just asked me to be on the Quidditch team… "Of course I'll do it. For you, James." Cinda gave him an adoring look.

__

Gross. Now I've given her the illusion that I'm interested… "Thanks, Cee, the team and I really appreciate it. See you later."

A redheaded figure who had watched the whole event narrowed her eyes at his form as he left. So Potter was going to play _that_ card, was he? She smirked to herself. Two could play at that game.

"If I have to speak to Cinda Green again in the next six hours," James announced in their secret room behind the portrait of Sir Cadogan, "I am going to be violently ill, even if I have to do it in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom."

Sirius smirked. "Whatever, James."

Allya swatted at him. "Leave the poor boy alone. His patience for the day must be mostly used up. Not to mention the fact that we all know he's still in love with our darling Lil-bug." 

**__**

'Whose darling Lil-bug?' Shut up. "Shut up," James said tiredly, massaging his eyes. "I am not. I just dread the day Quidditch practice starts again…" He chanced a glance at the calendar they'd pinned to the wall and groaned. "Only a week!"

The sound of low laughter drew Sirius' attention to the darkest corner of the hideaway- Allya must have said something funny, because Remus had an unusually large grin on his face (even for a Marauder among the girl he loved) and she was smiling, too. Even as he watched, Remus drew Ally a bit closer, leaned his head onto her shoulder and whispered his 'I-love-you' in her ear. 

Ally smiled, arched her neck back to kiss him, and replied, "I know."

This time when Sirius looked away, it was not because his stomach was threatening to mutiny on the rest of his digestive system- it was that he felt that he was invading their privacy… he felt something else, too. _I,_ he thought to himself, _really need to get a girlfriend_.

He was well aware that his best friend would likely kill him- but at least it would result in the best outcome for everyone. And Lily needn't know _that_, either. "So you'll meet me on the bleachers tomorrow at eight?"

She glanced outside, as if she could tell the next day's weather from what the sky looked like that day. "I guess," she answered, shaking red curls away from her face and wondering what on Earth Sirius was up to this time. _Am I going to regret this? Nah._

"You're crazy," Allya told him. "It's pouring rain outside!"

"That's the beauty of it," Remus said, winking. "Who else is going to be out there in the middle of March in the pouring rain?"

"Mm," Allya considered, kissing his nose. "Good point." 

Remus tilted his head a bit and moved her lips from his nose to his mouth, covering them with his own. Inspired by her sweetness, he threw her over one shoulder and headed for the portrait hole. "Remus… wouldn't be able to let me down any time soon, would you?"

"Let me think- no," he answered, weaving in and out of the students still in the hallway that gave him curious looks. ("You people wouldn't be able to help me, would you?" Allya asked.) 

He finally set her down again when they reached the front doors- Remus conjured an umbrella and they walked together out into the heart of the rainstorm.

"You had to choose a day when it was raining, didn't you, Padfoot?" Lily asked, ringing her hair out for the third time as she finally stepped into the relative shelter of the bleachers (there was an invisible tarp over the Quidditch bleachers, as spectators generally didn't enjoy being soaked). The only ones who seemed to be enjoying the rain were the roses around the edges of the pitch- they were in full bloom, despite the fact that it was April. Lily suspected this had something to do with Hagrid.

"Of course," Sirius grinned, shaking water from his hair and looking for all the world like the dog his Animagus form was. "Anyway, there's someone I dragged you all the way out here in the pouring rain to talk about-"

Lily gave him a sharp look, and began, "If this is about James, you can forget it. It's over between us. Done. Gone. Kaput. Out the window, miles down the road, melting in Hell-"

"I assure you," Sirius said, slightly amused, "this has nothing to do with our good friend, Jimbo the Amazing Elephant." He grinned, recalling the incident the day before when Lily had used an Engorgerus charm on his ears and nose. 

Lily laughed. "Then who'd you want to talk about?"

Sirius' grin disappeared and was replaced by a smile so innocent-looking, he had to be guilty. "You and me, babe." 

There was a snort of derisive laughter, which was quickly cut off by the entrance of two others onto the Quidditch pitch.

"Is there any particular reason we had to come all the way out here- _in the pouring rain_?" Allya emphasized unnecessarily, "To talk?"

Remus closed the umbrella- it was such a shockingly ugly pink, he must have borrowed it from Hagrid- and tossed it to the side. He grinned devilishly, "Actions speak _so_ much louder than words, don't you think?" he asked playfully, backing her up against the edge of the stands to trap her for a kiss.

Obviously, she couldn't answer him. Ally seemed incapable of moving ninety percent of her body- it was the other one percent that counted, after all. Remus had pinned her hands with his against the boards. The passionate fury could have lasted an hour- for them, time mattered not. After a five-minute eternity, Allya's hands freed themselves of their own free will and found a semi-permanent home in Remus' hair, ruffling it further and electrifying the nerves on his scalp.

Remus' own hands, in strict violation of the way his polite, chivalrous side had instructed them to act, somehow found their way to rather inappropriate places on Ally's body, but she didn't seem to mind. ("Hands!" Sirius whispered, and Lily slapped him, lest they be discovered. For some reason, Allya and Remus seemed a little preoccupied and didn't notice.)

When they had gained their breath again, and in between feverish, rushed kisses, Remus found time to murmur his, "I love you," once more.

"I know," she replied, and was leaning in for yet another kiss when he pulled away sharply.

"Why can't you answer that like a normal person?" he accused, eyes storming. "You know you haven't said it. Not once! Do you care about me or not, Jade?" Remus was perfectly aware that he had just called Allya by her middle name, and was far too furious to care. 

__

So that's what he dragged me out here for… "Said _what_, Remus?" Allya asked back in the same tone, deciding to play dumb and make Remus spell it out.

"That you love me!" Remus practically yelled, not really caring if anyone overheard. "That you care about me. I think I have the right."

"Well, maybe that's because I don't know." Allya's words were short, her eyes were green with a fury almost unheard of. "Did you ever think of that, Moony? Did you?"

Remus, exasperated, turned to leave. "Maybe you're not worth my time, Jade. Maybe I should just leave now and we should forget everything."

"If that's what you think, Remus Johannes Lupin, then just leave. There's nobody stopping you. But this time, don't come back." _Fifth breakup since January third,_ Allya thought to herself dryly and a bit exasperatedly. _That's a lousy record._

It was here that Remus realized how deep a hole he'd dug for his grave. He made it to the arch before he glanced back, seeing Allya watching him, eyes that stormy green color that petrified the younger Slytherins. "Why can't you just say it, Ally? Three words are all I've ever wanted from you." _That's not true,_ a perverted section of his (admittedly hormonal) brain taunted him. Remus told it to sod off.

"You think that it's been easy for me?" Allya yelled back, hands shaking in absolute fury. "Do you think it's easy for me, when everyone I've ever said that to has _died_, Remus, in case you _hadn't _noticed. Do you think it's easy for me to tell someone I love so much that I love them and risk putting them in that same danger? Do you think it wouldn't kill me if something happened to you, Remus? Or hadn't you thought of it at all?" Her eyes burned, literally and figuratively. "And if you think, after all that we've been through, that I _don't _love you, then you aren't worth my time either."

Her words surprised both of them, and the two listening in some drier spot in the bleachers felt guilty for a heartbeat. The two werewolves stood for a moment, pondering in the pouring rain.

__

Oh, bugger, Remus thought. And, as it finally dawned on him what she'd said, directly or not, _She what?!_ "I was out of line," he said quietly. "I'm sorry."

She sniffed in his arms. "Look at me, reduced to a simpering moron incapable of cohesive thought after a simple confession," Allya said, half-amused and half-horrified that she was crying _again_. "Well, I'm sorry too, and-"

Remus looked into her eyes, unprepared for what she was about to say.

"And I love you," she tested the words and their feel on her tongue for the first time in a while.

"I know," Remus whispered, letting salty drops that were certainly not rainwater flow down his cheeks.

"Bugger," Ally sniffed appreciatively. "I've made you cry again."

They both laughed, and even in the pouring rain, neither moved for a long time.

Remus and Allya were both rather stuffed up the next day, everyone found out with delight the next morning. Their reappearance into the common room had been proceeded by that of Lily and Sirius, who were an unofficial couple (much to James' not-secret annoyance) and refused to say anything about the other two lest Remus and Ally figure out that they'd been there. 

Of course, in returning to the common room, Sirius and Lily … irked James's temper, and he stormed out the portrait hole muttering about Snape, curses, and warts, trailing his Invisibility Cloak.

The morning of the Quidditch match against Hufflepuff, Sirius and Remus awoke early- quarter after six- showered and changed into their Quidditch team robes, and nearly flew down the stairs and outside. "That's what we want," Remus said, pointing. 

Sirius nodded and swept up a handful of the blooms in one hand, then dropped them quickly. "Ouch! Remus, why didn't you warn me that roses had thorns?"

Remus would have laughed, but Sirius was dripping blood all over white roses. _To waste such beauty… _"Oh… What was the spell again? _Cessi rellium_." 

Sirius' "wounds" closed. "Thanks."

Remus nodded and picked out his own array of pink roses from the bushes, slicing his hands open in the process. "You know, I'm beginning to think it would have been a better idea to use our wands."

At this moment, Hagrid came stumbling out of his house brandishing the umbrella Remus had returned the day before. "I'm beginning to think we should _run_," Sirius commented, and Hagrid chased them all the way into the school, but never found out who they were.

Lily and Allya were absorbed in a conversation about- what else?- the large, smelly wart that was growing on Severus Snape's nose. Just that morning, it had sprouted a sign that said, 'Insert Nasty Comment Here,' and had been bewitched to display at least four such comments since then. 

"It really said, 'Who's that trip' troppin' across my bridge'?" Lily asked, laughing.

"Thanks to a certain person, whose name shall not be mentioned because Lady Lily of the Gryffindor Tower has deemed it to be so… yes. I think Ja- er, he has had one too many Muggle Studies lessons."

"Good morning, ladies," Remus said. 

"Morning, Remus," Allya said without turning around at first, "Would you mind explaining why you missed breakfast? You really should eat, you-" Her eye finally caught on the bouquet in his hand. "Those are for me?" she asked meekly, grinning. 

"No, I just decided to ravage the flesh on my palms picking flowers for _another girl_. Yes, Ally, they're for you."

Both of them pointedly ignored Lily and Sirius, who were, em, involved in their own conversation. 

"Okay, what did you do?" Allya had the flowers now and was sniffing them appreciatively. 

Remus lowered his voice and leaned in conspiratorially. "Well, first, I…" Ally's blue eyes were so fixed on him that she never saw it coming- Remus raised his lips to hers and kissed her fiercely.

"Scoundrel," Allya muttered, tucking a perfect pink rose into her braid and using a charm to hold it there.

"You know you love it."

"You know I love it, too, you _sly_ thing." She winked at him, and he kissed her again. "Shall we go out to the pitch again, then? The match is in half an hour, after all!"

"So many memories," Remus commented, grabbing her hand and grinning as he pulled her out through the portrait hole.

"…led by Captain and newly appointed Chaser, James Potter, backed by Nightrunner "The Blade" herself, Warren "King me" Moores, Sirius (snort of derided laughter) Black, Remus "The Unbeatable" Lupin, and Cinda Green!" The cheers had basically started at the mention of James' name, although several of the males got sour looks when they barely heard Ally's- she wasn't exactly unpopular among them, but she'd never really had eyes for anyone but Remus. Thus, more foul looks were exchanged with Sirius and Remus' announcements, for the half of the female population that didn't want Sirius wanted either James or Remus. (Unless they were Slytherin, and some of them _still _wanted a Marauder.) In fact, the nickname 'blade' itself came from the male population of Hogwarts- unbeknownst to Remus, several of their hearts had been cut out. This was odd, because there were surely prettier girls (Lily, Mioré, and Arika to name a few), but perhaps the male population was not quite as shallow as it sometimes seemed.

"And the Hufflepuff lineup, starring none other than Amos "Full of shit" Diggory…" It seemed that the fifth-year Ravenclaw commentator was having a little too much fun- McGonagall tried to take the microphone away, but Elsie was using the Sonorus charm, so it didn't work.

"They're off! Gryffindor in possession- I didn't know Potter had _that_ kind of talent in the Chasing field!- brilliant pass to Moores- Moores shoots- blocked by Diggory of Hufflepuff, what a shame…" Allya had the Quaffle now; she wove in and out of the Bludgers hit her way by the Hufflepuff Beaters, Remus circling nearby warily. There was an opening- an uninterrupted pass to James, who put it in the hoop, no problem at all. "GRYFFINDOR SCORES! 10-0!"

Mioré and Lily watched from the bleachers- Lily with her eyes habitually searching the skies for any sign of the Golden Snitch, Mioré not so much watching as hiding her head in Lily's shoulder, waiting for Sirius to be out of danger. "...excellent save by Grinforth!" 

Gryffindor lost the Snitch but won the match due to an overeager Hufflepuff Seeker. 

"She's looked like that since the beginning of last week, what are you talking about?"

"She's never been that pale."

"You're never far enough away to notice her complexion."

"That made no sense, Padfoot."

"Your point being?"

Allya stirred in her sleep, muttering. Lily and Mioré, standing worriedly nearby, looked incredibly tired, as if they'd been watching her all night.

"Are you sure it's not just… that time of the month again?" James asked, wording his question carefully.

"I'd have felt it, too, if it were," Remus answered, touching her forehead and yanking his hand back. "She's burning up," he muttered, backing up a step. Concern etched itself deeper into his skin. "The moon only set yesterday, but…" His forehead wrinkled in concentration. "This has nothing to do with that," Remus said with finality. "Nothing at all."

So Sirius and James ran to fetch Madam Pomfrey, and Lily, Mioré and Remus could only watch while their friend tossed and turned in her sleep, somehow restless.

Madam Pomfrey refused to have Ally moved from that very bed. 

"This is not good news," she said more to herself than anyone else. 

"What is it?" Remus asked. He was still there- he could not be convinced to leave the room for anything. 

"Pneumonia," Pomfrey answered, and promptly ushered him out of the girls' dorm.

THE END- FOR A WHILE

__

Please note- for a while. 

I'm going to Florida. That's about twelve hours from here, with the different flights we're taking. (Graz, Vienna, Munich, Miami). Then we drive to some place… I don't know where, my Florida geography is notoriously bad. So I'll take my notebook, but I won't have anything posted until at least the fifteenth of November, I think. I can't help it if Mr. Libbey decided to drag the choir to Disneyworld! ::smiles innocently:: Anyway, if any of you are Florida people and wanna see me perform (I suck! YAY!) send me an e-mail and I'll tell you where I'll be and when. 

I, however, have a lot planned for this. It'll go up till Harry's seventh year, and not further because let's face it, this is getting old. Then I'll write something else, original or maybe some Hogwarts story nobody will read for its stupidity. 

Anyway, James and Harry are moving (this is the future, here). Everyone's getting moved around, split up, we meet new characters, they die, blah blah, long and short is, James does some bad bad things and Remus, Ally, and Sirius are not happy about it. And yet… I do believe all you plot-twist fans will love what I've got in store for both that and Harry's Hogwarts years. All I'm saying is expect the unexpected, or if you know me far too well for that, expect what you want to expect and hope for the best. Here ends my teaser.

And now, significantly less wise than Dumbledore's four words in the canon Harry Potter, two single syllables (haha… oxymoron) from the lone astronomer…

Review.

And guess which experience in the above story actually happened to me. I do so love using my real life experiences…


	7. Phoenix Tears

Frozen Tears

Phoenix Tears

lone astronomer

Summary: Starts where the 3Rs (Rain, Replacements…) left off. A pneumonia epidemic: people get sick, people worry, people die. (People die a lot in my stories, okie?!) Read. Review. That is all.

Disclaimer: No own, no money, no sue. Get it? Got it? Good. For a proper disclaimer, visit someone else.

Note: Sorry this took forever… mind was elsewhere. Last quarter I had 38 hours of school per week. That's almost physically impossible. So… please forgive me.

* * *

__

…love means its modest

needs its sacrifices

they live for your beauty

and pay for their vices

love will be the death of

my lonely survivors

but their spirits shall live on in

the hearts of their lovers

you're holding court

with your lips and your smile

your body's a halo

their minds are on trial

sure as Adam is Eve

sure as Jonah turned whaler

they're crooked love thieves

and you are their jailer…

-Depeche Mode, _Love thieves (Yes, words are wrong. Leave me alone!)_

* * *

Remus blanched. "Allya has _what?!_"

"Bacterial pneumonia, Remus," Madam Pomfrey answered, shooing everyone out of the dorm- including those who lived there. "And she is _not_ to be moved or disturbed, under any circumstances!"

"Um," Lily said, nervously shying away from the half-irate-with-worry school nurse, "What about those of us who have to sleep here?"

Madam Pomfrey just blinked at her at first, wondering who the redhead was to ask such a question. Finally she answered, "Talk to Dumbledore. I'm sure we can work something out."

Lily nodded. If past experiences were to be any indication, the Headmaster would be most sympathetic to the fact that _she had to sleep_. 

By this time, Madam Pomfrey had managed to shoo away the crowd surrounding the stairway, save for Remus. When she finally noticed him, he was just approaching her to ask her a few… prying questions.

"She'll be okay?" His eyes were wide yet with shock and seemed haunted. Madam Pomfrey shivered. She knew that look- that was the look of someone afraid to lose.

"With the proper attention," she said, averting her eyes to the floor so that she'd no longer have to look in his. 

Evidently, Remus' idea of attention was not the same as the nurse's. He marched right back up the stairs again, completely oblivious to Madam Pomfrey's protests. If Ally was in trouble, he was going to be right there with her.

"Now that's devotion," Sirius commented as he disappeared from sight. "And incredibly, sickeningly sweet."

Lily snorted in agreement. "Too true. You must promise to shoot me if I ever get like that," she told him, shaking her finger at him. Lily gave him a mock-severe look. "You do know what it means to shoot someone, don't you?" she teased with a grin.

Sirius stuck his tongue out at her. "I know what it means. That doesn't mean I'll do it, though." _Someone might get a little angry with me…_

"Remus is going to miss DADA," Lily said, stating the obvious.

Sirius gave her a grin as they walked out the portrait hole together. "Yeah, the poor kid's got it bad…" James Potter had been fuming for an entire week. And Sirius had noticed. The time for action was drawing nearer…

Remus was surprised to find that, although only a few moments before Allya had been burning up, she was once again freezing. He could hear her teeth chattering and her lips were blue. She was also making an unattractive wheezing sound with every breath. It was pneumonia, all right.

Remus, being a sentimental person, was still somewhat at a loss. He knew that infants and small children could die of pneumonia, or that there had been some Muggle cases of it happening. He knew that there were several different causes, and he knew that every time he'd gone outside without a jacket after September third as a child, his mother had said, "Remus J. Lupin! Put that jacket on _right now_! You'll catch pneumonia!"

She said it especially often when it was raining.

So Remus Johannes Lupin had guilt to contend with. Seeing Allya there, alternating between very cherry red and sheet-white, was not doing his conscience any good. Thus, the other werewolf did what he had to do to assuage it- 

He climbed into bed beside her, hoping to share some of his warmth and perhaps catch more of her less lucid premonitions ("Boy who lived…" and "betrayal" seemed to be common). Remus' plan backfired, though, because after no more than five minutes they were both sleeping peacefully.

"… Miss Evans. To stun a dragon, which spell would you use?"

Lily's head snapped up off of her desk and Mioré gave her a sympathetic look. "Um, pardon me?" she said, giving Professor Quinn her most innocent look. 

"Miss Evans, you must learn to-"

He was interrupted by a coughing fit coming from the third row. "Are you quite alright?" 

Quinn was answered only by more coughing. "By all means, Miss Evans, why didn't you say you were ill?" The normally severe professor seemed quite alarmed that one of his star pupils (whether he liked it or not, Lily _was_) had taken ill, and told her to go to the nurse without further ado. 

"But sir, I'm not sick!" Lily insisted. "I… just… have a cough, is all."

Professor Quinn almost asked her to repeat herself, because he couldn't hear her. Instead, James and Sirius grabbed her under the arms and dragged her out the door. 

"But I'm not sick!" Lily protested as Madam Pomfrey stuck the thermometer in her mouth. Actually, because of the thermometer, it sounded rather like, 'Mph hmm hmm hm hm hm!" It was a very quiet, 'Mph hmm hmm hm hm hm,' though, as Lily was sick. 

"Pneumonia!" Madam Pomfrey diagnosed, looking worried. It was beginning to look like there might be an epidemic. "James, dear," she said, looking distracted, "please notify Professor Dumbledore that I wish to speak to him immediately." 

James, with a worried glance at Lily, left the room silently, wondering if things were really as bad as Madam Pomfrey made them seem. Granted, he'd seen her fret over tiny, insignificant details before, and he'd often been on the receiving end of her overprotective streak- but then, she'd always been raving in such a comical fashion (she never realized it was funny, of course) that she put everyone at ease. 'Calm' was a new face on the school nurse… calm was worrisome, if you asked James.

"He hasn't moved in three hours."

"Can you blame him?"

Mioré and the ghost of Siren O'Maley were just outside the room in which Lily laid, oblivious to the fact that there was always someone else there in the room with her. She slept a lot, although when Madam Pomfrey wasn't watching she tried to get out her homework. Usually on these occasions she would be stopped by James or Sirius, who were keeping constant vigilance over her. Being Lily, she was annoyed rather than touched, especially when James stole her Transfiguration notes away.

"No, I can't blame him," Mioré said quietly, watching her friends. _Can I blame him if I'd do the same **for** him? No. _

Madam Pomfrey had given up trying to remove Sirius from Lily's bedside a good three hours ago, when he'd used a Binding charm the nurse had never heard of to keep himself in the room. As she didn't know the charm itself, it was impossible to perform the counter-spell, and so with Lily Sirius stayed. Of course, Madam Pomfrey couldn't know that Sirius had invented that particular charm himself, or she would have stopped trying to remove him from the room several hours before she did.

Siren's ghost gave Mioré a knowing little half-smile. "But you do," she said, and was rewarded with a sheepish Mioré watching her feet with interest. "Anyway, James' shift should start soon."

Mioré nodded. "It's all too complicated, if you ask me," she said, changing the subject. She was still standing in the doorframe and watching, unaffected by the uncomfortable turn the conversation had taken.

"Oh, Sirius has no intention of irking James' wrath permanently," Siren laughed, especially at the look on Mioré's face. "It's for the good of the two of them that he staged this little set-up. Not the nicest thing he could have done," she reflected, "but probably the most productive."

"That manipulative son of a bitch," Mioré said, comprehension finally dawning. A smile spread across her face. "Of course, James and Lil-bug have no idea how they've been set up."

"I assure you, James knows," Siren replied. "And he's fighting it valiantly. But there's really nothing he can do."

"No," Mioré said, "No, there wouldn't be. Poor boy. Horrible argument, that was."

"What was?" James' voice came from behind them. He had his rucksack slung over one shoulder and a Muggle novel under the other arm, and looked rather exhausted, which he well had a right to be; the Quidditch Captain had been awake for going-on thirty hours. Naturally, he'd been skipping classes, too- Mioré and Siren were keeping him informed, as Siren could visit any class of James' that Mioré didn't take. As Sirius was in all of James' classes, he was keeping up as well. Not that it was hard for the two of them.

"Er, nothing," Mioré said, stepping aside as James and Sirius switched spells and places. Amazing how they could forget an argument like that when Lily was in trouble. 

It was clear that James didn't believe her, and Siren whispered, "Smooth," into her ear as she floated away, invisible. 

"You look lively," Mioré commented to Sirius as he rubbed his eyes and left the hospital wing. 

"Thanks," Padfoot grumbled, not looking at her. "It makes me feel _so_ much better when you tell me how handsome I look."

"Glad to see that your winning sense of humor hasn't left you. Has there been any change?"

Sirius shook his head. "She just lays there, Em. Except when she's reaching for her homework, I hardly even recognize her." He paused a moment. "How's Ally?"

"About the same," Mioré answered, "only without the homework part. Remus says sometimes she'll try to get up, insisting she has to go home, before he comes and it's too late."

Puzzled, Sirius stops dead in his tracks. "Before who comes?"

Mioré shook her head. "That's just it- she never says. And in her more lucid moments, Remus says she can't remember that she wanted to leave."

They walked some more, reaching the common room and flopping down into large, mismatched chairs. "Do we have DADA homework?" Sirius finally asked, tearing his eyes from the roaring fire.

Mioré shook her head. "Snape substituted. It seems Lil-bug and Allya aren't the only ones with pneumonia."

Sirius sighed, and he looked so much older than his seventeen years. "Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"

__

She's not going to die, he told himself. _She can't die, because if she dies, you will die. You will die because you can't live without her. And she won't let you die._

Remus wasn't helping himself much. Even with him there to keep her warm, Allya was freezing. Lips and fingertips had turned blue, yet a sheen of sweat covered her brow. "Please don't leave," he said quietly. "Please don't leave me all alone."

A moment of lucidity crept upon her, and startlingly blue eyes opened blearily for but a moment. Her frozen fingertips caressed his face, causing him to shiver. Allya let out a low whisper, "I could never leave you." Her eyes closed again, and Remus nearly wept with relief, for in that moment, he knew that she would be alright. 

He stayed in her bed only an hour more, assuring himself that she would, in fact, live if he removed himself from her side for but a moment. Remus took this opportunity to grab his wand, summon his textbooks and supplies, and catch up on the homework he'd missed in the past three days. He was asleep on the foot of Ally's bed when James and Sirius found him the next morning.

"I know it's in here somewhere," James whispered, rooting through the huge stack of novels stacked haphazardly on Lily's desk. "I _know_ it is-"

"Know what is?" Sirius asked, rubbing his eyes. They'd finally both left Lily's side; although it was James' turn at the moment, he was looking for something and refused to leave until he found it. The reason they were whispering laid in the curtained bed by the window; they weren't supposed to disturb Allya.

"Romeo and Juliet," James answered, legs sticking out from under the desk. "It's her favorite…"

Sirius snorted at the irony of the situation. Lily and James had broken each other's hearts, and yet there he was, looking for her copy of _Romeo and Juliet_ to read to her while she was sick. If it hadn't been so tragic, it would've been hilarious. "_Accio Romeo and Juliet,_" he said.

A battered old paperback flew from under a stack of books, causing them to fall on James' head. "Oh yeah. Forgot about that."

Sirius tossed him the book, admonishing, "Don't be late, now…" A low rasp and the crinkling of parchment could just be heard through the heavy velvet curtains.

James paused a moment. "What's that noise?"

Sirius gave him a knowing look, walked over to Allya's bed, and pulled back the curtain. Allya, still pale but looking healthier than the last time they'd checked in, was the obvious source of the rasping noise. Every time she breathed in, her sleeping face showed a small amount of pain. Remus, on the other hand, provided the rasping. He appeared to be having a nightmare, and every time he moved, he rustled the papers beneath him. Spread out at the end of the bed, he looked more like a guard dog than even Sirius could. "This answer your question?" he whispered. 

James half-smiled, then the two Animagi- friends once again- walked back out of the room, shutting the door softly behind them.

__

If I could only handle a camera, Siren thought, hovering over the girl's bed hours later. 

They were both sleeping- she'd been sleeping before he even got there, but it didn't matter in the slightest to him. His head rested beside her hand on her bed, looking unnatural as his body was seated in the chair beside it. Unruly black hair spread out on the pages of _Romeo and Juliet_, obscuring the words from view. Two white lilies and a rose so red it was almost black laid on the girl's stomach, almost as if it were her final bouquet, which of course it couldn't be. Romeo and Juliet themselves couldn't have hoped for a more beautiful death scene-

Lily Evans and James Potter couldn't die, though. They were forever immortalized in that book.

__

If only they **could** be immortal, Siren thought, and floated up through the ceiling again to talk to the stars.

She didn't know what woke her. Perhaps it was the nagging of her conscience, tugging at the back of her mind and prompting her to sit up with a start. Perhaps it was Remus, who seemed to be having a nightmare on her feet. Maybe, even, it was her innate talent as a Diviner, telling her that it was time to stop sleeping, to stop being sick, to be with him.

Allya watched him for a second before she reached over and touched his shoulder, waking him instantly. 

Confusion reigned on his expression for the first few seconds, which turned to relief. "You're alright," he breathed with a relieved sigh, letting his eyes fall closed.

Though still weak, Ally attempted a smile to cover her concern. It almost cheered him up. "I'm more worried about you," she confessed, making a wholehearted (but mostly unsuccessful) attempt to pull Remus into her embrace. 

Remus allowed himself to be comforted, albeit after a brief pause. "But I thought-" Remus struggled with the words. "I thought I'd lost you," he said finally, not opening his eyes.

Allya was glad for this, for he could not see the tears she'd shed. 

This did not mean that he could not feel them; with her wet cheek pressed against his in the darkness, it was hard to miss. Still, though a phoenix's tears could heal nearly any flesh wound, they couldn't heal Remus' soul. Though it was indeed simply a dream, only time could do that.

"How?" Dumbledore asked tiredly, rubbing his eyes in a vain attempt to ease the throbbing headache he'd acquired.

"Complications," Madam Pomfrey said, her face haggard and eyes red from crying. "He refused to slow down for the pneumonia, but it caught up to him in another form. A Death Eater attack at the Apothecary in Hogsmeade. He thought he'd escaped unscathed, but…" she swallowed. "Slow-acting poison," she finally managed.

Dumbledore winced. "How soon can we arrange a replacement?" he asked.

Minerva McGonagall answered, her own face damp from tears. "We can't. I suppose we could get some of the seventh years to teach the sixth years… but their schedules are too full to handle more than one year. If we really stretched things, we could have some of the sixth years teach the other students…"

"Who's top in Defense Against The Dark Arts for that year?" Dumbledore asked, distractedly watching Fawkes fly about in his cage.

"Lupin and Nightrunner," Minerva responded automatically.

"And their marks in everything else?"

Minerva consulted a file she'd brought along. "Lupin's grades are overall above average… he could probably teach a few classes, if he needed to." She stopped, thinking a moment. "Not the third years, though." Rifling through the papers, she stopped at Allya's name. "Nightrunner, however…" McGonagall wrinkled her nose. "She really can't afford to miss Potions or Herbology. Other than that…"

Dumbledore nodded. "I will take the third years, then," he said. 

Minerva gave him a look. "I thought that you had Apparation preparation with the seventh years?"

He sighed. "With Quinn dead, I'll have to cancel it anyway. He was our link to the Ministry's letting us teach it."

"And what shall we tell the students?" Madam Pomfrey asked, a bit ruffled.

"The truth," Dumbledore answered. "My students will hear nothing but the truth from me."

THE END (For now…)

l. a. : Hay caramba! This took a long time. Sorry 'bout that, I nearly forgot I hadn't uploaded it, and then it wasn't quite done, not "tweaked" the way I wanted it to be. There will be only one more sixth year story, which will come out whenever I get my ass in gear.

REMUS: In other words, folks, don't hold your breath.

l. a. : Quiet, you. Anyway, you guys are keeping me away from _Jedi Eclipse_, so-

REMUS: _Star Wars_ is more important than _me?!_

l. a. : Never! But it's good practice, the reading. Helps spelling, grammar, good stuff like that…

ALLYA: Well, I suppose quality _is _better than quantity…

l. a. : They are equally important! And I'm going to go read now!

ARCHER: No! You are not finished _Every Wish!_

l. a. : I can't post _Every Wish_ until _Road of Life_ is done, anyway (spoilers!), which reminds me-

CLARA: You've almost forgotten about me! 

l. a. : I have not! I just needed to um… rest my fingers?

JAMES: We believe you… and while I'm here, let's talk about you killing off-

l. a. : Ooooookay, that's about enough for now, g'night folks!


	8. Hail To the Chief

And I Lost You

Hail To The Chief

Summary: It's been a long time in coming. The last of James' sixth year… A.J. and Remus teach, Lil and Sirius break up, James writes poetry. _James writes poetry_?! That's so cliché. What was I _thinking_?! Very well. Nobody writes poetry. I'll think something up for my nice poem.

Disclaimer: JKR owns just about everything. However, the poem is mine, _mine,_ MINE, _MINE_, even if it isn't that good. 

Signs your astronomer is having too much fun: _Various anagrams for 'Remus Lupin':_

INSURE LUMP, URINE SLUMP, RUMPUS LINE, IMPULSE URN … you get the idea.

__

Her spirit floated atop the Tower, the place she should have belonged. Of course, had she been placed there, she would have been killed so much sooner, and perhaps another ghost would have joined her by then. Or many.

Inside, James Potter tossed and turned, trying to sleep. In reality, he was exhausted, but the constant nightmares of and vigilance he'd been keeping over Lily Evans were keeping him awake. Siren- for she _was_ the spirit above Gryffindor Tower- supposed that Sirius wasn't helping matters very much. She knew it tore James' heart out to see the two of them together, best friend or no, ex-girlfriend or no. Siren was quite glad she'd never gotten romantically involved with either of them.

Strangely enough, neither James nor Sirius was out of the castle with the other two official Marauders. Allya, barely over her bout of pneumonia, wouldn't hear of it. She insisted that Remus wouldn't be any trouble for her own werewolf form to keep in line, as he'd run himself to exhaustion worrying over her the past few weeks. Aside from that, the two of them were planning on sleeping- in their wolf forms- the entire weekend through _because_ of the recent state of pandemonium.

Over the expanse of the Hogwarts grounds, the Shrieking Shack could just be seen, atop the hill in the center of Hogsmeade. Siren couldn't hear their howls- it was much to far, still. If she'd wanted to, she could have visited them… she shook her head. Now wouldn't be a good time. She turned her face away and found herself peering into the girls' dormitory, the sixth years, in fact. 

Lily, extraordinarily pale, was the most visible. She looked peaceful and frail while she was asleep, which could also have been the aftermath of pneumonia. 

Adrienne Grimsby tossed and turned, much like James did. Siren wondered why- she'd never actually talked to the mouse-like Gryffindor. The same for Lindsay Jones- she was a quiet sleeper, but certainly didn't seem quiet while awake. A ghost of a smile crossed the spirit's face when she noticed that one of Lindsay's arms was heavily bandaged. The poor girl was a drain on first aid supplies.

Another bed was empty- normally, Allya would have slept there, but that night was a full moon.

The final sleeping form, and the one who owed her life to Siren O'Maley, was Mioré Lancaster. Midnight hair fell across her eyes and onto her pillow, a look of mild pain on her face. Siren nodded to herself- four students in pain and so horribly mismatched that they'd never get their acts together. She sighed to herself- of all the boys for Mioré to fall in love with, it had had to be Sirius Black, the one capable of breaking any mortal female's heart.

Still, their lives were their own. Siren floated down through the floor and back to the Ravenclaw common room- there were other students that needed their nightmares guarded.

The silence in the Headmaster's office was deafening and the Head of Gryffindor house had been frightened at first that the two pupils would either scream or go crazy. Slowly, however, the absurdity of the situation sank in, and by then Allya Jade Nightrunner had nearly fallen out of her chair, tears of laughter streaming down her face. Remus just looked at her, a half-smile on his lips.

"You want two werewolves to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts," Allya managed to gasp out, trying to get up but managing only to bang her head on the desk. "Ouch."

Remus grinned. "Ah, the sweet irony of the situation." He extended a hand to his girlfriend. "So. What do you think?"

Allya blinked. "You're serious about this, aren't you?" she asked the man seated at the desk.

Dumbledore nodded once. "Deadly."

A slow, diabolical smile spread across the she-wolf's face, delight lighting up every angle. "We'll do it."

Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore looked relieved. "On one condition," Remus continued.

The two of them exchanged glances. So did their teachers. 

Minerva McGonagall was a sensible woman- of course they would have requests! It was a huge responsibility to become a teacher- they probably needed supplies, copies of textbooks, worksheets. There was no reason for alarm.

"You let us teach the third years."

Professor McGonagall fainted dead away.

They left the office, and the minute the gargoyle was closed the conversation began in earnest. "McGonagall… fainted," Remus said, struggling to keep a straight face.

Allya nodded, biting her lip and trying to hide her smile.

"We made McGonagall pass out…"

It was too much. Werewolves teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, stern Transfiguration teachers passing out… They started laughing again. 

She watched him, wondering if he felt her gaze the way she often imagined that she felt his. He was drafting something- not homework, not for Sirius, but something important- and there was already a sizeable pile of crumpled parchment behind him already. Her silver eyes longed to make contact with his, but he didn't look up, and kept concentrating on his work.

It took all of her courage to stand up and ask him what he was doing, but she knew she had to do it. "Sirius?" Mioré asked, sliding into the chair across from him. "What's up?"

He sighed, pounding his head on the table. "I," he grumbled, "am faced with the unpleasant task of breaking up with Lily Evans."

As quickly as the little triumph gave her joy, Mioré quashed it. It was unfair to glean a sense of personal gain from her best friend's sorrow, she reasoned with herself. "Oh," she said quietly. "Things aren't working out?"

Sirius looked up and shook his head. _She's beautiful_. "It isn't working," he replied, "but not in the way that you think."

She blinked. "I'm not following." Siren's counsel from the days before seemed to have gotten lost in the mass confusion somewhere.

Sirius drummed his fingers on the desk, dark hair falling into his eyes. "James isn't cooperating."

"He's making it difficult for you?"

Sirius half-laughed. "Not anymore. He's not…" he struggled for how to explain his actions without sounding immature and petty. "He's not acting on his jealousy," Sirius finally said. "He's supposed to be really bad about my relationship with Lily so that I can point out _why_. He's supposed to-"

"Punch you on principle?" came a voice from behind him.

Sirius whirled around.

This was a very bad idea. He was knocked out of his chair with one solid blow from beside him. James stood over him, distractedly shaking his right hand. Mioré slipped up to the girls' dormitories, not really wanting to see the end result.

Sirius, still quite in shock from James' punch, accepted his friend's offered hand. "I suppose I should explain myself."

James pulled out a chair and sat on it, backwards. "That might be a good idea."

Sirius groaned, rubbing his jaw and wincing. "How much did you hear?"

"Not very much," James confessed. "Just the last couple of sentences, actually."

Sirius sighed, sat down across from James, and picked up his quill again. "You should be with Lily, you know. That's what we were talking about." He wouldn't meet James' eyes. "You belong with her. You know you do, I know you do, even Lily knows."

"If you're so convinced we're meant to be, Sirius, then why are you going out with her?"

Sirius shrugged. "I wanted to make you jealous, for a while," he confessed. "See if I couldn't get you back together."

James' jaw dropped and it took him a moment to regain his bearings. _I can't believe I didn't see it before… Well, I suppose I _did_ know… I didn't see because I didn't want to see. _"You've been manipulating me," he said finally. "_Fuck_, Sirius, did you ever stop to think about her feelings? You never did love her, did you?"

Sirius spitted him with a dark glare. _How dare he suggest such a thing. _But for once, he remained calm. "Have you ever heard the saying that when you love someone, you have to let them go?"

James nodded.

Sirius said, "Well, _you_ can forget it."

James' brow furrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means two things, James," Sirius said softly, finishing a scrawl on his parchment. "The first is that yes, I do love her. That's why I have to break up with her. I don't love her like you do, and I can't." _Lily deserves him. She deserves him and nothing less… though not to say that he's more than I am, or that I could ever be. _He reread a few lines, then nodded to himself and tucked the whole thing into his rucksack. 

James was looking especially grim, and his lips were white because he was pressing them together so hard. "And the second?"

"The second is that I will personally kill you if you let that girl slip through your fingers. She's the best thing that's ever going to happen to you, and you know it." Finally, Sirius turned to regard James again, dark eyes blazing yet somehow sympathetic. "Don't you." 

It wasn't a question.

Sirius left James there to think, and only hoped that he hadn't done more damage than he'd meant.

The second years filed into the classroom rather slowly, throwing apprehensive looks towards the two unfamiliar faces at the front of the classroom. Hufflepuffs or Ravenclaws each, they knew the two werewolves only from Quidditch, which didn't exactly make them popular as Gryffindor had repeatedly whipped both teams. The fact that Allya was sitting on the desk didn't exactly lend her a lot of respect, although Remus _was_ trying to be stern. He was very serious about his prospective teaching position.

"Good morning, class," he said, and Allya had to stifle a laugh. "Please be seated."

The class sat. A good portion of the Ravenclaws and some of the Hufflepuffs even did it in their seats. 

Three of the latter and a Ravenclaw sat on the floor. One Ravenclaw, a skeptical-looking boy who bore an uncanny resemblance to Sirius, sat on his desk, arms crossed and one eyebrow raised.

Remus just glared at them. Those on the floor cringed first, and slowly sat in more appropriate places. Skeptic-boy took more convincing and the tapping of Allya's wand, but eventually (and with a very dark look) dropped into his seat.

Allya spoke for the first time. "As you all know, Professor Quinn is no longer with us." There was a moment of silence; nobody had really _liked_ the man, but that didn't mean they weren't saddened by his loss; and then she resumed speaking. "Due to that fact, Professor Lupin and I are taking over until a suitable replacement can be found."

This caused a bit of a commotion- Remus fixed it with a simple silencing charm. "As we're late beginning already, please open your textbooks to page three-hundred forty-five…"

The two werewolf 'professors' explained briefly about Romulus, a violent prankster that had existed since the beginning of Rome, and then assigned a short essay. Remus turned to Ally then. 

"That went unexpectedly well."

She grinned humorlessly at him. "We have the Slytherins next."

Remus groaned, running a hand through his hair. "Of course we do…"

A motion over his shoulder caught Allya's eye and she pushed Remus gently out of the way. A simple Freezing charm did the trick, and she stared out at 'her' class expectantly. She crossed her arms. "What _is_ the meaning of this?"

None of the children moved, mostly because they couldn't. Allya plucked the note out of the air before removing the charm. "Shall I read this, then?" she asked, blue eyes flashing with a humor the children couldn't understand. She was trying to flush out the culprit, of course; it wasn't really working but it had been worth a shot.

Slowly, so as to increase the tension nearly to the breaking point, she unfolded the note. "'J- Who cares about Romulus when we've got the Roman Love Goddess in front of us? I mean, did you see her…'" Allya trailed off, quirking an eyebrow. "Remus, hon, you wanna read this?" she asked, holding the note over her shoulder.

Seconds later, there was the sound of knuckles cracking, not to mention a low growl.

Several small, male second years swallowed audibly. Ally let the ghost of a smile dance across her lips.

A bell rang.

Remus punched his fist for effect. "Dismissed."

There was a mad dash for the door, in fact it took less than three seconds for the class to empty fully but for its teachers. When they were alone, however, the substitute professors laughed themselves silly.

Remus figured that the least fun class of the morning was going to be that of the Gryffindor and Slytherin third years. 

He was wrong.

"Could someone give me a short summary of what a Boggart is?" Ally asked patiently, tapping her wand in her hand.

One of the Gryffindor girls in the front row raised her hand. She reminded Remus uncannily of Lily, and he suppressed a smile. "A Boggart is a Dark creature without form," she answered primly. "Upon spotting a human, it will turn into whatever it thinks will scare the person most. They live mostly in dark places, but because they can change their size, can live almost anywhere."

Remus smiled at her. "Excellent- two points for Gryffindor, Miss Stevenson. Now, does everyone remember the spell to use on Boggarts, or haven't you taken that yet?"

Unsurprisingly, Stevenson raised her hand quick as a whip again. Remus, however, didn't call on her. "Anyone else?" he asked. 

The rest of the class just looked bewildered. "I'll demonstrate, then," Remus said, taking out a locked drawer from the filing cabinet and whispering, "_Alohomora_." Ally ushered the rest of the class back to the wall, then Banished the desks and chairs to another end of the room.

The Boggart saw Remus and took shape- a silvery orb hung in front of him. Remus, looking a bit white, pointed his wand at it. "_Ridikulus_." The moon began to shake, then bounce around crazily like a rabbit on steroids. A little man who'd been standing on it (he had a top hat in one hand and a cane in the other, as if he were about to do a song and dance routine) struggled to stay on. Remus grinned. "Want to take a shot at it, Miss Stevenson?"

She timidly stepped forward. There was a _pop_ as the Boggart recognized her, and (Remus and Ally winced) a werewolf appeared, growling and snarling. She took a step back.

"Now," Allya commanded, "think of something funny that could happen to the wolf, and say the spell-"

"_Ridikulus_," Emily Stevenson said timidly. All of a sudden the werewolf was standing up, human-style, still covered in fur. Except now he had a guitar and pink hair cut into a mohawk. Snickers filled the room.

"Line up behind Emily and let's see what else you're afraid of."

Mummies, vampires, Death Eaters, Dementors, griffins, vultures and the occasional ghost of Professor Quinn all appeared in the room at different intervals. The mummy grew a skirt and did the Can-can, on one of the kicks its foot flew off; one of the vampires clucked like a chicken; two Death Eaters juggled bowling pins; a Dementor pulled back his hood to reveal bunny ears, then proceeded to chomp on a carrot and ask, "What's up, Doc?". The griffin's fur was singed off and it danced around naked, trying to cover itself, before being replaced by a vulture with no beak. Professor Quinn's ghost seemed most confused; he reached for his chalk to write 'detention' on the blackboard but his hand went through it. Then he stomped around the room, screaming and cursing the Potions master for all he was worth.

"One last demonstration," Remus said. "Ally, if you please?"

She bit her lip, unsure, but stepped to the front and took out her wand. _Pop._

Several of the Slytherins even screamed. A Gryffindor who'd been sitting on her desk gave a sharp little cry, and even Remus was taken aback.

On the floor in front of them lay two figures- a small white wolf whose muzzle was covered in blood… and a carbon copy of Remus himself, quite obviously dead.

Allya just stood there, eyes looking quite sorrowful and face somber, as she murmured, "_Ridikulus_." The wolf shrank to the size of a hamster and the adolescent opened his eyes, now free of blood, and picked her up, putting her into his pocket. The she-wolf peeked out and tried to bite his hand, ending up dangling from the end of his finger. 'Remus' shook her off and caught her in the other hand, earning applause and laughter from the class, and there was a final pop before the Boggart disappeared.

Remus passed out some chocolate and bade the students on their way before holding Ally for a long, long time.

They made it to lunch with plenty of time to spare, although they did attract funny looks from several fellow students when they sat down. Indeed, Sirius was about to ask where they'd been all morning when one of the younger Gryffindors from their second morning class asked to be told what the homework was again.  
What's more, the boy called Remus, 'Professor Lupin.' And left with a cordial, "Thank you, Professors!" after his conversation with the two werewolves.

Sirius didn't bother trying to hide a grin. "Moony," he said, "Mrs. Moony, have you been impersonating teachers again?"

"Now Sirius," Allya answered between mouthfuls, choosing to ignore the 'Mrs. Moony' comment, "You know we'd never do such a thing."

"Yeah," Remus chimed in. "We're actually professors."

Sirius, Lily and James looked at each other. Finally, Padfoot turned back to the Dark creatures. "Where did you two learn to lie? Come on, you know we won't be mad if we find out you were exchanging saliva all morning-" Sirius trailed off as he spotted Professor McGonagall approaching. "Can you two teach me the Ancientanus Charm?" he asked, watching his Head of House suspiciously.

His jaw dropped, however, when she handed Allya a fourth year DADA textbook and said, "Here's the material you requested… you didn't need it this morning, did you?"

Ally shook her head no, vocalized her thanks, and went back to her spaghetti.

Sirius looked like he'd just gotten run over by an eighteen-wheeler. "You're teaching?" he said.

"You're _teaching_?" James repeated.

"_You're_ teaching?!" Lily asked incredulously.

"Is there an echo in here?" Remus and Ally just grinned.

It was the day after her breakup with Sirius that Lily found the note. She was in the library, looking for something she hadn't read yet, and as the only section left (besides the Restricted Section) was Muggle poetry, that was where she was, sitting on the floor in front of the shelves. Occasionally, she would take out her wand and whisper, "_Accio_," sending an ancient or out-of-reach volume her way. Mostly, however, she preferred to search out books on her own. She seemed to be able to feel the contents of each book through every soft leather cover, and only pulled out the volumes which felt somehow magic- a good, clean, human kind of magic. As she pulled out what had to be the thickest volume there, Lily noticed a bit of paper fluttering to the floor. She picked it up in one hand, delicately running her hand over the old parchment and reading the barely legible text.

__

Leave Miss Jolly

A feeling I didn't recognize:

To lose my heart within your eyes.

To say the least, I was surprised.

All my soul, without compromise

Deserted me; now I surmise

There's something you must realize-

Lily turned the paper over, frantically searching for the remainder of the sonnet- but for naught. She couldn't find it. _That's the most profound feeling…_ Lily shook herself out of the reverie. The only other words on the paper were 'Raul Sibsick.' _The author's name, perhaps?_ The redhead shrugged and tucked the slip of paper into her pocket for safekeeping.

"Today," Allya announced to the excited third year Gryffindors and less-than-enthusiastic Slytherins, "We'll be learning about werewolves."

Remus didn't look terribly happy.

Ally was having a field day. Her grin was putting the children off their learning, which wasn't exactly the most difficult thing to do, but it _was_ unusual to do it purposefully. She and Remus had done a Temporary Telepathy charm on themselves to better know what the other was saying and to make the lessons better coordinated. _Cheer up, Moony_. "After Remus explains, you'll get a chance to ask any questions that you have. He's a particular expert on this topic, so you can all put your textbooks away now. All you need is a quill and some parchment if you want to take notes." There was a long, drawn out thudding sound as textbooks were dropped into rucksacks or onto the floor. 

"While I'm explaining," Remus took over, brandishing his wand, "I'm going to be tying Professor Jade" ('Professor Nightrunner' took far too long to say) "to the chair." In answer to the dubious looks and the harsh scratching of quills on parchment, indicating note-writing, he explained, "She has a friend and distant relative who are werewolves, and gets a bit testy where the subject is concerned. We will _not_," Remus emphasized the word, eyes glinting, "be engaging in any sort of activity that one might describe as 'kinky'," (he heard, '_Aw… why not?_' in his head and grinned, '_Maybe later_.'), "so clear your filthy little minds of that subject." 

The Gryffindors looked absolutely bewildered that their idol would be speaking in such a manor, then laughed, realizing the hilarity of the situation. Thus, Remus tied Allya to the chair and gagged her while he explained a bit about werewolves, separating myths from facts and vice versa. 

The questions tested the very limits of Remus' patience and the strength of the ropes binding Allya to the chair. "What do werewolves look like when it's not the full moon?"

"They're hairy and savage, idiot, what do you wa-"

The poor boy was interrupted by an incredible string of cusswords from the blonde being in the chair, who had somehow loosened her gag. "…say that to my face, you little-"

Remus looked at Ally, and all of the fire drained from her. She simply glowered at the boy. _Stupid Slytherins._ "A werewolf looks and acts just like anyone else if it isn't the full moon," Remus corrected sternly. "Occasionally they can get very tired because of the energy the transformation takes out of them, so they're often very meek."

The Slytherin, obviously feeling Ally's reprimand more harshly than he liked, sulked in the corner.

"Is there any cure for a werewolf bite?" one young Gryffindor wanted to know.

"Not as of yet," Remus answered, looking a bit contrite as he pulled out a chair to sit on again. "There is, however, a potion that has been developed that renders the werewolf harmless during the transformation. It's known as the Wolfsbane Potion and keeps the human inside the wolf sane, so that he or she will be able to control the wolf."

"The wolf? It's like a different person?"

Remus thought for a second. "Think of it as a mild case of schizophrenia: during the day before, during, and after the full moon, the human inside the werewolf cannot control itself and will bite anyone that comes near it, unless they drank the Wolfsbane potion beforehand."

The questions went on and on, and when the bell finally rang, Allya and Remus were exhausted. "Why did we agree to this again?" Remus asked.

"Gets us out of exams in three subjects of our choice," Allya replied, still tied to the chair. "Say- do you want to untie me now?"

Remus grinned. "Well, it's break- there _are_ ten minutes before the next class…"

Allya groaned. "Don't remind me."

Remus kissed her, and Allya struggled to move. He broke away after a moment, and she tried unsuccessfully to glare at him. "Next time, I get to tie _you_ up."

Neither really minded that the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw fifth years walked in on them kissing.

James slammed his Charms textbook closed in disgust, eyes attracted to a piece of paper fluttering to the floor. _What's this_? he wondered, snatching it out of the air with the expertise of a once-Seeker, and thought that it was no wonder Gryffindor had recently won the Quidditch Cup for the third year running. The ancient piece of paper nearly crumbled in his grasp, but he smoothed out the wrinkles and set it down on the table.

__

Each time I see you, something dies.

You smile at me, and my heart cries.

You are the one my heart desires,

And I lost you

-Raul Sibsick

Trust it to some poet to capture my exact feelings. Hey, watch what you're thinking. James frowned, turning the paper over. There must have been more to it than that- it was senseless the way it was! "_Revealio_," he said, pointing his wand at it. Nothing happened. "_Discuvrum_." Nothing happened again.

He bit his lip, examining the parchment. He noticed that the paper was torn at the top, and rifled through his Charms book, then the rest of his rucksack, for a matching slip. He finally gave up and tucked it into his pocket for safekeeping, then went back to studying for his exams.

To relieve pre-exam stress and to get Sirius another detention for his logbook, the Marauders grabbed James' cloak from the trunk and headed off to the room behind the portrait of Sir Cadogan.

"Can you tell us the password, Siren?" Ally pleaded, on her knees before the ghost. "Please?"

Siren sighed dramatically. "Fortuitous bitch," she grumbled.

Remus growled, "Pardon me?"

"The password," Sierra said, "is 'Fortuitous bitch.'"

Allya grinned devilishly. "Why, it seems that Snapie had _me_ in mind when thinking up his password…"

James and Sirius exchanged glances. "Let's move it out, people."

The hallway was dark and, as Sirius couldn't see anyone, he kept stepping on people's feet. "Sorry," he whispered, stepping back sharply, then, "Sorry!" again and moving forwards.

"Shut _up_, Sirius," James ground out, looking from side to side. "Mrs. Norris'll hear you…" He finally came to a stop in front of a statue. "_Fortuitous bitch_," he muttered, and the four of them slipped inside. "Right," he said, standing in the middle of the Slytherin common room. "You all know what to do."

Wands and dungbombs distributed, the Marauders split up.

Sirius visited the dormitories while the others meandered around the common room- dungbombs under Snape, check; clown makeup, check; disable alarm clock, check; hair in pigtails (_Ugh! Greasy!_), check.

In the common room, a massive redecoration was taking place. Green turned gold and silver red; lush carpets covered elegant marble, and the walls turned a shocking pink color. Gold, red, and pink was not the nicest color combination, and Allya was glad that she'd not thought up the idea. James was setting the huge alarm in the corner and Remus performing the Singing charm upon it. Ally pointed her wand to the ceiling, conjuring a huge face and a bunch of words, before sneaking back out with the other three troublemakers. Exam day one was going to be fun…

The next morning, Severus Snape woke up late to an infernal racket coming from the common room. His dorm, minus one traitorous early-riser, rose with him, running down to the dungeon only to find it in total disarray. From the ceiling came an improvised rendition of 'Hail to the Chief' involving a piano, a violin, and several voices ("Hail to the chief, he's the one we all say 'hail' to…"). The common room must have had a makeover from Hell with some sort of twisted Barbie fanatic; everything was pink and red and really didn't match at all. But it was the clock on the wall that grabbed Severus' attention. _Oh no…_ his first exam started in five minutes. He raced out of the room without even thinking about changing out of his pajamas. 

(you can guess what happened then)

The last day before summer break was a lolling about sort of day. Exams passed and mischief managed, the Marauders Plus Two sat around a table, just talking about nothing like one can only do with the best of friends. Lily was speaking:

"…but I wish I'd found the end of that poem," Lily grumbled. "I mean, I searched every library book here for 'Raul Sibsick.' Nothing."

James perked up. "Raul Sibsick?" he asked, rummaging in his pocket. "Hold on a sec… what part of the poem did you get?"

Lily presented a much-wrinkled sheet of paper and laid it upon the table. "Just this," she said morosely, smoothing it a bit.

"Raul Sibsick?" Remus said, looking suspiciously around the table. 

James finally found what he was looking for. "Here it is…" he lined it up under Lily's half of the poem. 

" Leave Miss Jolly

__

A feeling I didn't recognize:

To lose my heart within your eyes.

To say the least, I was surprised.

All my soul, without compromise

Deserted me; now I surmise

There's something you must realize-

Each time I see you, something dies.

You smile at me, and my heart cries.

You are the one my heart desires,

And I lost you

-Raul Sibsick "

James finished, quite oblivious to the obvious looks he was getting from pretty much everyone around the table. "What?"

"Raul Sibsick," Remus said again, the hint of a smile on his lips. "James, could I see that for a moment?"

James handed him the parchment. "_Angramus familiaris,_" Remus said softly. Slowly, the letters resolved to spell something quite different: Sirius Black.

"Well done, Sirius," Allya commented, rereading the poem. "But I don't get the title."

Sirius smiled elusively. "You will," and he, James, Lily and Mioré headed up to bed.

Allya stared at the words. _Leave Miss Jolly…_ "What was that spell you used, Remus?" she asked softly into the darkness.

From over her shoulder, Remus mumbled, "_Angramus familiaris_."

Ally smiled, the hint of a smile playing onto her lips. She pointed her wand at the title. "_Angramus familiaris_."

Remus, watching her, laughed a little. "Well, that was sweet of him."

Allya nodded. "I'm going to bed- you should too. We have one last day here and then two months of nothing."

Remus nodded, and after a kiss the two parted ways.

But in shining text on the table they'd just left, words spelled out destiny:

__

James Loves Lily

The End


End file.
